Ramaphosa gets a boost at chaotic ANC conference
Ally Oscar Mabuyane elected to lead the Eastern Cape Outgoing chairman’s faction asks for an interdict
Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC presidential hopes received a significant boost at the weekend, with close ally Oscar Mabuyane elected to lead the Eastern Cape at a chaotic conference.
Several delegates were injured when a fight broke out between supporters of Mabuyane and outgoing chairman Phumulo Masualle — with the latter’s supporters being driven out of the conference venue at the East London International Convention Centre.
Also elected were deputy chairman Mlungisi Mvoko, treasurer Babalo Madikizela, secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi and his deputy, Helen August.
Masualle, former treasurer Thandiswa Marawu, deputy chairman Sakhumzi Somyo, as well as provincial executive committee (PEC) member Mlibo Qoboshiyane walked out of the conference after violence erupted over credentials.
They have since gone to court in a bid to interdict the conference. The court is expected to make a ruling on Monday. Mabuyane confirmed the committee would be challenging the application.
“We think it’s just an academic exercise because you can’t interdict a conference that has already concluded its business. But this is not the end, it’s a start … we are waiting for an [application calling] for a review or to set aside the outcome. It’s a trick that people are playing, but we are ready for [Eastern Cape lawyer Mvuzo] Notyesi,” Mabuyane said.
Closing the conference on Sunday, Ramaphosa pleaded with ANC members in the province to extend an olive branch to Masualle and his supporters. “I am also making a call to those comrades who are not here.… I am saying remember one thing, we are all members of the same family of the ANC.
“We must come back and work together. If we can help it, let us resolve all our problems together rather than marching all over.”
With more than 950 of the 1,700 delegates, the conference met the 50% plus 1 threshold to proceed and national executive committee (NEC) member Lindiwe Zulu declared Mabuyane’s election legitimate as the party’s constitution “had been abided with throughout”.
Mabuyane received 935 votes against Masualle’s seven.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa on Saturday suggested some of the people responsible for the disruption were determined to collapse the conference.
Outgoing provincial spokesman Mlibo Qoboshiyane was adamant on Sunday night that Masualle remained the provincial chairman. “There was no dissolution of the PEC” as other delegates left the conference venue due to the chaos.
Ramaphosa’s opponents in the party’s largest province by membership, KwaZulu-Natal, also appeared to be on the back foot at the weekend. The pro-Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma provincial executive has already appealed against a judgment that nullified its 2015 election. But the option of going the legal route seems to be losing traction amid calls for a political solution.
The party’s top six was in the province at the weekend, talking to the various factions.
On Sunday night, members of the Senzo Mchunu faction, which successfully challenged the 2015 elections, said they were not happy with President Jacob Zuma’s partisan “meddling” in the continuing dispute in the province. They said Zuma’s “shenanigans” were aimed at keeping the “nullified” PEC intact so that it could lobby for his former wife and chosen successor, Dlamini-Zuma.
“We are disturbed by the president’s action. It doesn’t show that he wants to unite the party. Instead, he is pushing for a factional agenda to keep the PEC as is so that it would continue to campaign for NDZ [Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma],” said a senior leader of the Senzo Mchunu faction, who asked not to be named.
“We are aware that ever since the court decision, the president has only uttered words in support of retaining the PEC. He even suggested that the PEC should be made a provincial task team. We will not allow that to happen. We will not accept the conversion of the PEC to the PTT.
“That would be like saying a cat is now a mouse,” the person said.