Top six optimistic of solving PEC gripes

DISGRUNTLED ANC leaders are hopeful that a meeting next weekend between the party’s top six, and regional executives will resolve their gripes with their provincial executive committee (PEC).

This follows the disbandment two weeks ago of the Dullah Omar (Cape Town) regional executive by the party’s provincial leadership, citing numerous “transgressions”.

ANC president Jacob Zuma will on Saturday, meet with the Boland regional executive; his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa will be in Beaufort West to meet with the Central Karoo regional executive; ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete will meet with the Dullah Omar leadership; secretary-general Gwede Mantashe will be in the Overberg region; his deputy Jesse Duarte will be in the Southern Cape while treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize will meet with the party’s West Coast leadership.

Yesterday ANC “branches” opposing the party’s provincial executive met to chart the way forward following the announcement on Friday that the party’s top six officials would visit the province.

At a meeting in Eerste River, ANC Ward 96 branch chairperson Danile Khatshwa said the disbandment of the Dullah Omar regional leadership had not been “well communicated” to branches.

“The branches which were at the ANC national policy conference, sat together and tried to come up with a solution. Branches of the ANC have been kept in the dark,” said Khatshwa.

Less than 25 ANC activists turned up at the Community Women Action conference centre in Eerste River where a press conference was supposed to take place, with branch leaders addressing the media.

Khatshwa said branches in Dullah Omar did not “recognise” a regional task team, established following disbandment of the elected regional executive.

“We want the office of the regional executive to be opened because the membership of the ANC decreases each and every day. If offices are closed, when are we going to build this ANC?” asked Khatshwa.

One of the reasons that Jacobs gave for the disbandment of the ANC’s Dullah Omar regional executive was gate keeping, where membership credentials were manipulated to rig who could attend branch general meetings.

Last week Mkhize confirmed the ANC was investigating membership fraud in four provinces – KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In KZN there are believed to be as many as 200 000 “ghost” members.

Jacobs would not respond to the grievances of the branches which had called a press conference but said that his office was busy with a “pre-audit” of the ANC’s members in the Western Cape.

“We’re asking all the branches to submit their membership signatures, forms and branch details. Part of our challenge with Dullah Omar (region) is that they don’t want the membership list to be made public,” said Jacobs.

Before branch general meetings, which would choose the delegates to attend the ANC’s elective conference, branches were supposed to publicise their membership lists so they could be scrutinised.

But there had been resistance to this from some in the Dullah Omar region, which was one of the reasons its executive had been disbanded.

Chairperson of the disbanded Dullah Omar region Xolani Sotashe said:“The matter is not in our hands, if we are called, we will go there but we will allow the processes to unfold.”