ANC top six visit Western Cape bodies

THE ANC’s top six leaders descended on the Western Cape at the weekend, meeting various regional executives across the province following calls three weeks ago that the party’s provincial executive committee be disbanded.

Yesterday, President Jacob Zuma met the disbanded Dullah Omar regional executive in Athlone, where they made the case for why the decision of the ANC’s provincial executive should be reversed.

The meeting Zuma had with branches of the Dullah Omar region was covered in a veil of secrecy, with former regional executives referring the media to ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa.

Zuma was initially scheduled to meet the ANC’s Boland branches, but Kodwa said yesterday there was nothing sinister in the change.

Today Zuma will be in Nyanga to deliver the Nelson Mandela memorial lecture.

In the Central Karoo, ANC regional secretary Windy Plaatjies said their meeting with secretary-general Gwede Mantashe went well.

He said the meeting was not “a complaining session,” but about assessing the health of the region and the ANC in the Western Cape. “We are not happy with the PEC, there are organisational issues, which we raised.”

He was referring to the issue of the ANC’s candidates lists and a draft report, handed to ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs, which listed several irregularities in the selection of the party’s councillor candidates for the local government elections.

In the southern Cape, the ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte met branches who were supportive of the party’s provincial executive and the disbandment of the Dullah Omar region.

In Citrusdal, the ANC’s treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize met the regional leadership alongside another NEC member, Derek Hanekom.