ANC faces test of resolve as regions rage
After each ANC national conference, the consolidation of the power of the winning faction has swept swiftly into its structures. After Mangaung, when the Jacob Zuma faction took hold of the national executive committee (NEC), the provinces, regions and branches followed, with allegiances forming around the new national leadership.
The same pattern has been unfolding after Nasrec in December, but in a far more complex manner as no faction obtained complete dominance over the party’s national leadership structures. Contests in the provinces, regions and branches have been all the more intense and difficult to resolve by a divided national structure, albeit one trying desperately to portray a united front ahead of a crucial election.
The upcoming special ANC NEC meeting will be a key test of the party’s leadership. It will illustrate the degree to which it can maintain its “unity project” in the face of fight-to-the-death factionalism, articulated rather scarily by secretary-general Ace Magashule when he encouraged the Nasrec losers to “work hard” to reclaim the “real ANC” at elections in five years.
He was speaking in KwaZulu-Natal, a hotbed of political killings. No wonder then that the ANC’s provincial conference at the weekend was once again blocked by a 12thhour court interdict after Magashule’s faction aborted a unity deal, a move reportedly encouraged by Zuma.
Now the NEC will have to unravel a complicated knot, rendered more difficult to manage by the partisan approach of the leaders. The situation is complex — first because the task team, led by Sihle Zikalala and Mike Mabuyakhulu, were tasked with convening a provincial elective conference by the NEC. The pair, who are on different sides of the factional divide, and their team clearly failed to do this. The court interdict halting the conference is glaring evidence of their failure.
Another difficulty for the leadership to grapple with is the pronouncement by Zikalala that delegates at the “conference” have called for those who took the party to court to face disciplinary action. The Daily Maverick reported that these members now fear for their lives due to the very violent nature of political contestation in the province.
Zikalala said “delegates” want the matter to return to court urgently so “their” side could be heard and not just that of the disgruntled group. But his comments make no sense — if the court ruled against the event, who are these “delegates” and do they have the legal standing to make such a call?
KwaZulu-Natal is a case study for factionalism gone horribly wrong and also of how the decision by the national leadership to appoint a task team composed of those who have repeatedly manipulated processes to secure their desired outcome was a mistake.
The special NEC will grapple with another problematic province, the Free State. The NEC is set to look into the status of the newly elected Free State leadership, whose positions are also being contested by a group claiming irregularities in the run-up to the gathering. This after a provincial elective conference held late in 2017 was nullified by the courts.
Should the NEC fail to resolve the Free State situation, it is likely the group contesting the provincial leadership will return to court, where they have won their case in the past. They complain that the irregularities that were meant to be rectified after the court judgment were simply repeated in a different manner this time around.
The third contentious provincial battle for the special NEC is whether to dissolve the North West provincial executive committee (PEC) after former premier Supra Mahumapelo resigned last month. His bizarre political report to the PEC this week listed seven “new political activisms”, which he claims his provincial collective will have to deal with at a “retreat”.
“Political self-preservation activism, perpetual grievance political activism, political reputational damage activism, political lazist syndromatic [sic] activism, political socioeconomical entitlement activism, political suicidal activism, political triumphalist and denialist activism” were listed as “new phenomena impacting on the character of the ANC”.
The special ANC NEC may spend the entire weekend trying to unravel this nonsensical defence by the North West PEC as it attempts to justify its continued existence.
It is also concerning that there has been little movement on the Electoral Laws Amendment Bill. The bill, the Electoral Commission of SA told Parliament two weeks ago, is still “under consideration” by the government. A key part of the bill is to provide jurisdiction for the Electoral Court to assist in resolving internal party disputes — such as those in the ANC — which activists keenly watching the process say could have a bearing on preparations for the poll and its outcome.
With elections less than a year away, the ANC’s internal battles are worrying. This weekend’s special NEC has its work cut out for it.
THE ANC NEC WILL HAVE TO UNRAVEL A COMPLICATED KNOT, RENDERED MORE DIFFICULT TO MANAGE BY THE PARTISAN APPROACH OF ITS LEADERS