Ndebele heads team to probe conference
A report is expected at the end of this month
and The man in charge of investigating irregularities that marked the ANC Eastern Cape conference, Sbu Ndebele, says he is yet to be briefed over what his job will entail.
Yesterday, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe announced that a team of seven people, made up of four national executive committee (NEC) members and three technical staff, would investigate an appeal lodged against the chaotic provincial conference last month.
The team headed by Ndebele, is made up of Rejoice Mabudafhasi, Joyce MoloiMoropa and S’dumo Dlamini.
The contested conference has become a hot potato for the ANC’s succession race – with the newly elected leadership throwing its weight behind Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to become the next ANC president at the party’s elective conference next month.
Ndebele said he got a call from Mantashe yesterday to inform him that he will chair the panel investigating the ANC Eastern Cape conference.
Ndebele said he knew there were difficulties in the provincial ANC but he was committed to listen to concerns.
“We can’t have a province as big and influential as the Eastern Cape not part of the body politics,” he said.
The former provincial chairman Phumulo Masualle and a group of former leaders ousted at the conference are appealing the outcome of the provincial conference.
The team tasked with investigating the conference would have to deliver a progress report at the next NEC meeting at the end of the month.
Mantashe said the elected provincial leadership led by chairman Oscar Mabuyane remained in place.
Meanwhile, Mantashe has adopted a no-nonsense stance on claims by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma supporters that he was not objective.
He also rejected claims that he was on the firing line, saying factions in the party were desperate ahead of the national elective conference.
Mantashe, who appears on the slate of Ramaphosa as chairman, questioned what Dlamini-Zuma would say if he was one of the candidates vying to replace President Jacob Zuma.
He lamented that a national Women’s Day commemoration event in Northern Cape was used to campaign for DlaminiZuma. “Nobody talks about that thing. I think people must campaign, but they must not be petty.”