ANC tries to pull plug on sensitive audio leaks
Party considering to downsize staff by 50%
The ANC has intimated at taking legal action to combat leaks of its heated virtual national executive committee (NEC) meetings as divisions continue to deepen within the party over the suspension of leaders who face criminal charges.
The party convened the special meeting to discuss the state of implementation of its “step aside” rule that instructs all its structures to direct leaders who are charged for corruption and other serious crimes to step aside from their positions or suspend them if they refuse.
A number of the party’s leaders, including embattled secretary-general Ace Magashule, had refused to leave their posts, resulting in them being suspended.
Magashule and ANC MP Bongani Bongo, who is facing criminal charges, had insisted that they had appealed their suspensions and were eligible to attend the meeting but were booted out of the meeting on Saturday. Their expulsion saw several leaders sympathetic to Magashule voicing their frustration about the widening rift within the ANC and its destructive impact on the governing party.
This was followed by social media audio leaks of NEC discussions, which the party slammed yesterday.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said the party was particularly concerned by the social media account, Insight Factor, which has been mainly responsible for publicising the leaked discussions. “We are aware that they are supplied information by their proxies to further a nefarious task of not only dividing the ANC, but also to drive a particular narrative that goes against the united spirit displayed by the the NEC meeting currently under way.”
ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte had said Magashule’s backers were responsible for the leaks as they were aimed at furthering a particular factional agenda.
The audio of NEC member Dakota Legoete was the first to be leaked as he called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to be the president of the entire ANC and not a faction. Legoete also accused the party of having failed to implement its conference resolutions.
Limpopo provincial chairman and premier Stan Mathabatha’s audio praised Ramaphosa as one of the best presidents of the ANC ever, but accused his backers of factionalising the party. Mathabatha said the president’s supporters were conducting clandestine meetings where certain leaders were decampaigned and boxed into factions they did not belong to.
In another leaked audio clip, part of the input by former president Thabo Mbeki surfaced where he said the party had to respond to the question of whether there was still an organisation called the ANC.
Yesterday, a clip of ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile was leaked where he insisted that the NEC was the appeal body and “final arbiter” for all those who were disgruntled by their suspensions from the party on the basis of their criminal prosecutions.
Mashatile had been tasked to lead the process of an appeal panel for the “step aside” rule implementation.
“The appeal panel will probably just be a mechanism to process matters for the NEC,” Mashatile said.
He said the names of those who could constitute the panel would be finalised by the national working committee.