ANC’s new ‘rebels’ to fight on

ANC members who successfully interdicted the party’s KwaZulu-Natal conference in court are fearing for their lives, with some having now hired bodyguards.

Yesterday The Mercury spoke to three of the six applicants, who said while they feared for their lives they would continue fighting for what they believed was right, despite risking internal disciplinary action.

“I have had to hire my own security. And yes, I am concerned but if we do not fix this mess in the ANC, who will do it?” asked Siyabonga Hlongwa, one of the applicants.

Another applicant, who did not want to be named, said: “I have hired armed guards who are here 24 hours. I fear for my life, and that of my family. We have already seen messages from people saying they will destroy us.”

Anger at the applicants was visible at the conference, with some delegates singing “inkomfa yethu uma ingahlali kuzoliwa” (if the conference does not go ahead there will be war). The applicants representing branches from Moses Mabhida, Harry Gwala and the Lower South Coast regions, took the party to court alleging that more than 100 branches in the three regions were to be unfairly denied the right to participate in the conference.

“In one case we had a branch that went to the December conference having passed the audit and which had 102 members. In March that same branch was told it has only two members. We asked for the files which should be kept at the regional office, but we were told they were lost. Only when we wrote to the national leadership was that matter resolved.”

In the run-up to the branch general meetings, some of the conferences were irregular and some of the delegates at the provincial conference were not qualified to be represented.

The ANC’s provincial task team (PTT) last week told the media it was satisfied with all the processes undertaken in preparation for the conference.

But the Pietermaritzburg High Court granted the interdict on Friday, meaning the conference could not go ahead. ANC leaders scrambled for a solution and later resolved to turn the gathering into a consultative conference.

Tensions and divisions were again laid bare as delegates booed and jeered those members seen to be against the faction and supporting former president Jacob Zuma.

ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu and NEC member Bheki Cele were the first casualties, booed while being introduced by Sihle Zikalala.

ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe also had a tough time, drowned in song whenever he tried to address the conference.

“Wenzeni uZuma khawuphendule” (What has Zuma done wrong, tell us) they sang.

A group of eThekwini delegates also claimed that their region had taken a stance that there was not going to be any “unity slate” emerging out of the conference, as they wanted those leaders who were elected in the 2015 conference returned to office.

Yesterday, Zikalala said the ANC in the province would apologise to the national chairperson (Mantashe).

Mike Mabuyakhulu convener of the provincial task team downplayed the incident, saying “we shouldn’t be reading too much into the reactions”, adding that emotions had run high because of the court outcome.

However, Mantashe labelled the disruptions as organised and deliberate, saying such behaviour needed to be corrected.

“The fact that they stopped Mike Mabuyakhulu from speaking, allowed Sihle to speak and stopped me… Basically, if that conference went ahead it would have been a factional conference because not everybody was allowed to speak, only those like-minded could speak.”

Mantashe said should the organisation ask him to go to KZN he would do so.

“I don’t have a no-go area in the ANC. Members of the ANC must behave like members of the ANC, members are disciplined by provinces and regions. The province must discipline members who misbehaved, it’s that simple,” he said.

The delegates called on the provincial task team to discipline the applicants who took the party to court, saying this “had become fashionable”.

Zikalala said delegates were in agreement that taking the ANC to court bordered on ill-discipline. Responding to this, the applicants said they were not bothered by that.

“The constitution of the ANC is not superior to that of the country, and we have the right to test the ANC constitution in court,” Hlongwa said.

“If they want to discipline people who have taken the party to court, then they should do that to all the people.

“In the PTT we have people who are there representing the grouping that took the ANC to court last year, then those too must be disciplined,” he added.