NMB region defies provincial executive resolution to disband
AN INTERNAL BATTLE has erupted within the ANC in the Eastern Cape after its Nelson Mandela Bay regional structure rejected a resolution by the provincial executive committee (PEC) to disband it.
The region, from which controversial ANC firebrand Andile Lungisa hails, has instead called on Luthuli House to intervene and block the PEC from its attempts to dissolve it.
On Tuesday, provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi announced that a provincial working committee report on the challenges faced by the region revealed that – after three consecutive audits – it had not met the required 70% threshold of branches in good standing.
This also made the region unable to convene a regional general council, where it would fill the position of regional chairperson, which was left by Lungisa when he was instructed to step down last year.
The provincial top brass also accused the regional leadership of presiding over a declining membership.
Regional secretary Themba Xathula said the provincial leadership’s report did not reflect the reality of the party in the region.
“All of the above is nothing short of delusion and is an outright delinquent assessment of the realities that are confronting the Nelson Mandela Bay Region. The problems of this region cannot be attributed to a leadership collective that was elected in 2017, after the organisation had lost local government elections,” Xathula said.
Xathula blamed the crisis on the first disbandment of regional structure by the PEC, which he said led to the region being perpetually led by regional task teams that were frequently changed.
“This saw the ANC in the metro operating without a regional executive committee (REC) for many years and therefore deterring the work of the organisation,” he said.
He said the regional leadership would resist any move by the PEC to remove it, and accused it of undermining its authority.
“We are concerned by the fact that the PEC has, since its election, been undermining the authority of the REC as an elected structure. The PEC has, on numerous occasions, insisted on working with comrades from the region that do not form part of the REC collective. These comrades comprise mostly of the collective that was in leadership when the ANC lost in the 2016 local government elections,” Xathula said.
He said the regional structure was being side-lined and victimised because it did not back the current leadership under provincial chairperson Oscar Mabuyane at last year’s conference.
“This, in our view, is the reason why the PEC has formulated frivolous allegations about our operations as an REC and have, as a result, misguided each other into taking an irrational decision of disbanding a structure that continues to do its work diligently,” Xathula said.
The regional leadership has now approached Luthuli House in an attempt to secure political protection.
ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe said the issue would be discussed at the NEC meeting next week.