Masualle calls for unity in the ANC
Premier targets third term as ruling party provincial chair
UNDER his watch, the ANC in the Eastern Cape was united for almost 10 years, something now under threat from next month’s elective conference, provincial chairman Phumulo Masualle said yesterday.
Masualle acceded to the party’s top position in the province when he beat Mcebisi Jonas to the chairmanship position in a fiercely contested 2009 elective conference in East London.
He retained his position in the 2013 conference where his position was uncontested as the party “went for a unity” in Port Elizabeth.
But next month he is expected to face stiff competition from provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane.
Yesterday, Masualle addressed an ANC cadres’ forum at the Cofimvaba High School, where he said that under his leadership, the province had been united for eight years.
Cofimvaba is in Mabuyane’s home region of Chris Hani.
“We have been known as a province which is hugely divided with discord, marred with parallel structures and so forth. But since 2009, there has been stability and order in the ANC in the Eastern Cape.
“That is something that we, as leaders and members, must proud ourselves of.
“This has not been an individual achievement but was through efforts and strides of collective leadership who assisted through that high discipline,” he said. “It is now that we are going towards the conference we see some foreign elements destabilising that unity and this is impacting negatively on the organisational unity and stability.”
Supporters for both Masualle and Mabuyane have been crisscrossing the province campaigning hard for their preferred candidate.
Earlier this month, Masualle took his campaign to Stutterheim where he urged party members “not to fix what was not broken”.
Masualle’s supporters – who included provincial executive committee member Andile Lungisa, Amathole regional secretary Teris Ntutu, Chris Hani regional chairwoman Kholiswa Vimbayo, Joe Gqabi regional chairman Zibonele Dumzela, ANC MPL Michael Peter, former Intsika Yethu mayor Sithembele Plata and MPL Nkomonye Bayeni – sang and danced with other party members while they waited for Masualle’s arrival.
They had three fingers raised in the air – a sign for a third term as ANC boss.
“We maintained our stance and have not changed [our minds] that we want comrade Phumulo to be the chairperson,” declared Vimbayo. —