Duarte on ANC unity mission
ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte will lead a team to the party’s provincial headquarters in King William’s Town today, where leaders from four troubled ANC regions will be grilled on complaints raised by fellow members.
The affected regions are Buffalo City Metro (BCM), OR Tambo, Amathole and Chris Hani in Queenstown.
Meanwhile, a separate team of ANC national executive committee (NEC) members will spend the rest of the week in BCM to help deal with political instability in the region, ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa said yesterday.
The week-long stay in BCM this week follows a visit on Sunday by NEC deployees to the troubled region.
Kodwa said a separate team led by Duarte would meet regional chairmen and secretaries from BCM, Chris Hani, Amathole and OR Tambo.
The four regions are preparing for elective regional conferences and rival factions are now accusing each other of gate-keeping.
Kodwa said the Duarte-led team would divide the meeting into two sessions.
“In the morning, we will deal with regional chairmen and secretaries of all affected regions, and in the afternoon we will then allow individuals who lodged disputes to present their cases.”
Common in most of these cases, he said, were allegations of gatekeeping and manipulation of membership forms.
“We are trying to find common ground in all these cases and ensure unity within the ANC.”
Once Duarte’s team was done with the four regions, they would then spend time in BCM.
“During our visit to BCM on Sunday we received several complaints about political instability in the municipality as well disunity in the regional executive.
“We are going to spend the rest of this week to try and find solutions to these challenges,” Kodwa said.