Call for early ANC conference
THE Western Cape ANC’s poor performance in last month’s local government elections has prompted the South African Communist Party (SACP) to call for an early elective provincial conference for its Tripartite Alliance partner.
The SACP’s provincial council met for the first time this weekend after the elections in Philippi.
SACP provincial spokesperson Masonwabe Sokoyi said the Western Cape ANC remained “fractured” and its internal divisions had deepened since last year’s provincial conference.
“The provincial conference was steeped in factional practices involving the use of money and invariably gave rise to a divided leadership,” said Sokoyi.
Weaknesses in the provincial ANC “led to a string of blunders and miscalculations” which saw the party waste time and energy on resolving candidate selection disputes and disagreements instead of canvassing and campaigning.
“The provincial council therefore calls for the ANC to hold an early provincial conference to ensure the strengthening and reinvigoration of the ANC in the Western Cape Province.
“This call is not based on disrespecting the leader of the alliance in the province, but is informed by our observations of the ongoing challenges it has faced after its conference, and the divided PEC it has produced,” said Sokoyi.
SACP provincial secretary Khaya Magaxa is also the ANC’s acting chairman in the absence of Marius Fransman, who is the subject of a disciplinary process over a sex scandal.