Firm nod for Cyril from Eastern Cape
Mabuyane’s election as provincial ANC leader big boost for Ramaphosa
BEAMING from ear to ear, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa revelled as hundreds of Eastern Cape ANC members gave him an emphatic endorsement yesterday to lead the ruling party come December. Just hours after bloody scenes at the East London International Conference Centre, Ramaphosa was welcomed by a boisterous crowd that sang and danced in adulation.
Earlier in the day, more than 900 delegates at the venue elected Oscar Mabuyane over premier Phumulo Masualle to lead the party in the province.
The weekend’s dramatic election laid bare the divisions in the Eastern Cape cabinet as MECs visibly fell on different sides of the factional divide.
While Ramaphosa addressed Mabuyane supporters at the centre, kilometres away at the City Hall – where supporters of Masualle had massed – Agrarian Reform MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane rejected Mabuyane’s election. Qoboshiyane stunned some when he said they believed Masualle was still the leader of the party in the province.
The group at the City Hall was also addressed by Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Andile Lungisa, who was, throughout the weekend, accused of driving the campaign to disrupt the conference.
Masualle went to ground yesterday. He was not seen at either venue and did not answer his phone.
At a media conference, Mabuyane said Masualle had reached out to him after the midnight brawl.
“He called me to find out about my whereabouts and whether I had been injured,” Mabuyane said.
“I also called him later. He said he was not in a position to come back [that] night.”
Meanwhile, lawyer Mvuzo Notyesi filed court papers yesterday, acting on behalf of four members who believed they were illegally excluded from the conference.
Notyesi said the weekend’s event was not a legitimate conference but a “gathering of friends”.
But new provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi said the case was part of a fishing expedition by those who had not wanted the conference to happen. He said Notyesi had taken the ANC to court 14 times before and had lost every time.
Judgment in this case will be heard today.
Mabuyane alleged that Notyesi was desperate to control the ANC out of greed.
He said the group had tried to frustrate the democratic character of the ANC and what had happened would never happen again in the Eastern Cape.
Ramaphosa, speaking of Mabuyane and his team, said: “They are the new leadership of this province as elected by yourselves.”
Referring to the fracas, he said: “It was a festival of chairs here. It went on for quite a while.
“What we saw on our TV screens yesterday is something we as the ANC must be deeply ashamed of. This is not the behaviour expected of members of the ANC.
“We condemn violence as a method of resolving disputes among us.”
In a speech urging unity, Ramaphosa asked the new leadership to extend an olive branch to those who had walked out of the conference.
He said the party needed leaders capable of embracing those defeated in conferences, instead of telling them to get lost.
Asked if a reshuffling of the provincial cabinet was on the cards, Ngcukaitobi said: “If there are changes, these will be necessitated by the need to improve the lives of the people of the Eastern Cape.”
Political analyst Mcebisi Ndletyana said what had happened at the conference was an indication of what political office meant to those contesting for power.
“Headquarters decides who gets tenders,” he said.
“There have been substantial amounts of money poured into contests, as an investment.
“That’s what makes these conferences high-stakes affairs.
“A loss is not just about office, but [it] also means loss of money. So these kinds of fights are inevitable.
“But they [contests] can’t be decided on the basis of who’s angriest. “The ANC must go back to its own rules. “Rules must win the day, regardless of how unhappy some members might be.
“That’s how institutions, including parties, are built – on rules.”
What we saw on our TV screens yesterday . . . is not the behaviour expected of members of the ANC – Cyril Ramaphosa