No calls for Gwede’s head, insists ANC

FACTION: SOME NEC MEMBERS DEMANDING ACTION

Mantashe being blamed for handling of debacle at Eastern Cape conference.

No calls were made to have ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe suspended from the party, the ANC said in reply to reports that President Jacob Zuma’s supporters in the national executive committee (NEC) demanded disciplinary action be taken against Mantashe.

According to the report, Mantashe was taken to task by some NEC members for the manner in which he handled the recent Eastern Cape conference debacle, where delegates attacked one another with chairs after a fight broke out over leadership choices. Some of the injured were hospitalised and later discharged.

The fight erupted when delegates disagreed on credentials which were crucial to determine the number of those qualifying as voting delegates.

The two factions had differed over who should be elected provincial chairperson, between then incumbent Phumulo Masualle and his former provincial secretary, Oscar Mabuyane. Mabuyane was subsequently elected after some of Masualle’s followers boycotted the gathering.

The meeting, in East London in October, was addressed by ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who made closing remarks.

Ramaphosa apologised for describing the delegates’ clash as a “festival of chairs”, but was adamant that the newly elected PEC was legitimate and he was satisfied with the report he obtained.

According to sources, Mantashe was accused of allowing the conference to go ahead despite the fight, when he should have asked for it to be called off. They also allegedly demanded he should have refused to recognise the new PEC.

Some NEC members were said to have complained about contradictory reports from the new provincial leadership, and NEC members who were deployed to the conference, about exactly what happened.

Followers of Masualle have challenged the matter in court and were demanding that the new PEC should be disbanded and the old one reinstated. Interestingly, some members of the new committee were from the old PEC, including Mabuyane.

Zuma supporters at the NEC meeting, which was in Irene east of Pretoria over the weekend and yesterday, allegedly demanded that the old PEC must be reinstated and converted into a provincial task team. But members supporting Ramaphosa who spoke to The Citizen said the reinstatement of the old PEC would cause more problems.

“That old PEC was defeated. Some of them boycotted when they realised that Mabuyane was going to beat them at the election,” said an NEC source.

An ANC member from Gauteng, a province which supports Ramaphosa as presidential candidate to succeed Zuma, defended Mantashe, saying he had done no wrong as he could have done nothing to stop the Eastern Cape fight.

“How can they make him a scapegoat when there were NEC members at the conference?” he asked. –