Task team to oversee disbanded region

ATTEMPTS by the dissolved ANC Dullah Omar (Cape Town metro) regional executive to have the decision by the party’s provincial executive reversed has seemingly fallen on deaf ears.

Instead a letter was sent to branches in the region, informing ANC members of a new regional task team which had been appointed by the provincial executive to oversee the party’s administration.

The regional task team (RTT) which is headed by ANC MP Leonard Ramatlakane will report monthly to the provincial executive committee (PEC) and has been tasked with ensuring that branches and sub council structures are “established, revived and strengthened”.

Ramatlakane will serve alongside 30 other members of the RTT including former City of Cape Town mayoral committee member Joseph Thee, Tracy Mbalo, ANC MPL Cameron Dugmore, former Safa Western Cape boss Vernon Seymour, Lumka Yengeni, Parliament’s former head of security Zelda Holtzman, ANC City of Cape Town councillor Senzeni Mphila and former Hawks’ boss Anwa Dramat.

There had been controversy among some ANC members over Ramatlakane’s appointment because he had previously left the ANC to join Cope in 2008 and returned to his former political home just before the 2014 general elections which saw him included in its list to Parliament.

Ramatlakane said he had accepted the task from ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs, and would do “what the organisation has asked us to do”.

“We need to establish a structure and rebuild to ensure there is a regional conference,” said Ramatlakane.

Asked about his selection, he insisted he was a member of the ANC in good standing. The

We have a well-balanced team of seasoned cadres

ANC’s Manguang conference ruled that only members of the party for three years can serve in leadership positions.

“We don’t have members of Cope in the ANC. I am an ANC member in good standing,” insisted Ramatlakane.

In his letter to the branches, Jacobs called on the dissolved members of the regional executive to accept the task team.

“We believe we have a well-balanced team of seasoned cadres, with a mixed and complimentary skill set and experience that would be equal to the task, and that have the interest of the ANC at heart,” wrote Jacobs.

Earlier in the week members of the dissolved Dullah Omar regional executive insisted they would not abide by the provincial executive’s decision to dissolve them.

Former regional secretary Vuyiso “JJ” Tyhalisisu had insisted he would go to the regional office and conduct his business as usual.

But on Monday when he went to the ANC’s regional office in Athlone he, along with some members of his executive , found the locks had been changed.

An ANC insider said the dissolved Dullah Omar regional executive had been acting like gatekeepers, and had prevented the functioning of branches to influence the number of delegates to the party’s December elective conference.