KwaZulu-Natal crisis top concern at ANC meeting

The ANC’s special national executive committee (NEC) meeting this weekend will have to deal with the severe problems facing a number of the party’s provinces — most notably its largest, KwaZulu-Natal.

The province’s elective conference was stopped from taking place at the weekend when a disgruntled group of ANC members approached the High Court in Pietermaritzburg to have it interdicted.

KwaZulu-Natal has been without leadership since the same court in 2017 nullified its 2015 elective conference after finding some irregularities. The past weekend was meant to be a rerun of that conference.

The ANC’s national working committee on Monday received a report on the province.

Party spokesman Pule Mabe said the issues raised would now be taken to the special NEC meeting. “What is important is to be able to find an amicable resolve on the issues that are there in the shortest time possible so that the province can hold a conference and have leadership and prepare for immediate tasks,” he said.

The tasks included focusing on the 2019 elections and consolidating the ANC’s renewal programme, which was resolved at the Nasrec conference.

Some ANC members in the province have called for those who took the province to court to face disciplinary action.

Mabe said the special NEC would deal with all these issues.

“I think what the organisation is doing is to make sure that it looks at all the issues holistically so that in whatever efforts or resolution that is being facilitated on the issues at play that happens within the context of uniting our members and making sure that we ultimately stabilise the organisation and move everyone forward,” he said.

The special meeting is expected to deal with the appointment of a new North West premier after Supra Mahumapelo was forced to resign. It will also deal with the issue of a disgruntled group in the Free State wanting to go to court to nullify the province’s recent elective conference.

There also seems to be a push to have the North West provincial executive committee, which is still controlled by Mahumapelo, dissolved.

The NEC meeting in May gave the national working committee the task of looking into the situation in both provinces and reporting back to a special NEC meeting.

The struggle over provincial conferences reflects the battle for dominance in the ANC between the factions in the leadership elected at Nasrec.

WHAT THE ORGANISATION IS DOING IS TO MAKE SURE IT LOOKS AT THE ISSUES HOLISTICALLY