Oscar: deployees should fear ANC
DECISIONS of the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) will be implemented and this includes the reshuffling of the provincial cabinet.
This was said by ANC provincial chairman Oscar Mabuyane at a cadres’ forum at the Orient Theatre in East London yesterday with close to 1 000 members in attendance.
Mabuyane said the current PEC was a legitimate structure as indicated by him being allowed to speak at the January 8 celebrations by the national leadership.
He questioned those who did not recognise the PEC, asking if they would be able to contest a conference should the national leadership decide to disband his PEC.
“ANC deployees in the provincial executive were called to Calata House to prepare policy speeches but they decided not to come and instead they went to Luthuli House.
“Once the ANC gives people power they think that power is theirs but that power belongs to the ANC,” he said.
Among those in attendance at the forum was the chairman of the parliamentary communications portfolio committee, Humphrey Maxegwana, and national executive committee (NEC) member and Sport and Recreation Minister Thoko Xasa.
Mabuyane said MECs were not availing themselves for ANC sub-committees. He said it was difficult to check how the ANC was performing in governance when MECs defied ANC provincial leadership.
“When you are a member of the ANC and are deployed by the ANC you must respect the ANC. We can’t have deployees who don’t account to the organisation that has deployed them.
“You must respect the ANC and be scared of the ANC,” Mabuyane said.
Mabuyane denounced the march to the party’s provincial headquarters Calata House in King William’s Town last week. A march had been planned to counter that march but it was cancelled in the 11th hour.
“We won’t fix the ANC by fixing a wrong with a wrong.
“No individual is bigger than the ANC. The ANC Eastern Cape is very powerful and it saved the ANC when it decided to have comrade Cyril Ramaphosa as president,” he said.
He said there were members of the party willing to destroy the party to ensure they were in power.
He did not shy away from controversy when he said land did not belong to traditional leaders but the people.
“The ANC is about the people and when it says land must be given back to the people it does not mean land must be given to chiefs and kings. Land must be given to the people and they will decide if they want to give the land to the chiefs and kings or not,” he said.