Andisiwe Makinana and Lindsay Dentlinger
13 October 2008
A task team led by ANC national executive committee member Tony Yengeni is to take charge of the party's disbanded Cape Metro region from Monday, as ANC dissidents face losing their jobs as councillors.
But the axed top brass of the disbanded Dullah Omar metro executive have dug in their heels and are refusing to give up their posts, in a show of dissatisfaction with the new provincial leadership of the ANC.
Yengeni's interim team, which will oversee the troubled region for the next three weeks, was appointed by the newly elected provincial executive committee (PEC) at the weekend.
Briefing delegates at the ANC's provincial general council in Gugulethu at the weekend, provincial chairperson Mcebisi Skwatsha said the party could not allow the dissidents to use the ANC platform to undermine the party and hinted they could be axed as councillors.
"Some people are ANC councillors and they get money because they are councillors of the ANC," he said.
Delegates at the meeting accused the dissidents of abusing party resources and pushed for their expulsion from the ANC - which would mean their removal as councillors.
Some delegates felt strongly that as ANC caucus and regional offices were party property, they should not be used to fight the party.
Some suggested that these offices be locked from Monday and any party resources used by the dissidents be taken away.
The meeting heard that the disbanded regional executive committee had used party offices and other resources to mobilise for a dissidents' meeting addressed by former defence minister Mosioua Lekota, who has threatened to form a breakaway party.
The meeting of dissidents was held in Langa at the same time as the provincial meeting in Gugulethu on Saturday.
Yengeni will be in charge of the metro executive until a new committee is elected at a regional conference before the end of the month.
The Dullah Omar executive was dissolved according to a resolution taken at the party's provincial conference last month.
The executive committee officials were among ANC members who boycotted the provincial conference.
Speaking on the SABC on Sunday night, the leader of the dissidents, ousted Dullah Omar regional secretary Mbulelo Ncedana - who is the caucus leader of the ANC in the City of Cape Town - insisted the provincial conference was "unconstitutional".
"We are waiting patiently for the national leadership to come and address us. We couldn't attend the meeting because we don't recognise it. The provincial conference must be redone," Ncedana said.
Ebrahim Sawant, the former deputy regional secretary, who is also a senior member of the city council caucus, told the Cape Argus on Sunday night that the executive had not been directly informed of their disbandment.
"It is very difficult to operate as the ANC if we are not taken seriously. We have exhausted all internal processes. Everything we hear, we hear through the media. We have not heard from the PEC directly that we have been dissolved," he said.
Skwatsha told Saturday's meeting that the provincial leadership had struggled to communicate the conference's disbandment resolution to the sacked executive committee last week. He said Ncedana, to whom the notice of a meeting had been addressed, had failed to inform other executive members.
"We wrote respectfully to the secretary of Dullah Omar, calling them to a meeting.
"But the regional office told office (staff) not to call people directly. We called them directly... a few went to the meeting," said Skwatsha said.
Last week Skwatsha called a meeting of the 81 ANC councillors on the city council.
Sources said that less than half of them turned up, in a show of defiance against the PEC.
Ncedana and Sawant were notably absent from two day-long meetings in the council last week at which the city deliberated about priorities for the 2009/10 budget.
On the first day, only ANC whip Peter Gabriel represented the party, while on Friday he had the support of councillor Tozama Bevu, chairperson of the disbanded Dullah Omar region executive, who is an alternate member of the budget committee.
But Sawant said on Sunday night that their absence from the meetings was unrelated to friction within the party. The meetings had coincided with party work that needed to be done.
He did not want to comment on possibly being recalled from his council post.
Ncedana insisted on Sunday night that he was not seeking to jump ship, despite attending the Langa meeting on Saturday.
"We are going to fight our battles within the ANC.
"We are going to consult even broader than the ANC on these issues."
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