'Chaos' at Party Meeting as Factions Divide South Africa's ANC

The African National Congress's (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting has ended with an announcement that Secretary-General Ace Magashule has been given 30 days to step aside from his role or face suspension and disciplinary action by the party. In addition, writes Ferial Hafajee for Daily Maverick, the Radical Economic Transformation faction of the party has effectively been banned from organising and faces disciplinary action by the party. She had earlier written that two factions within the party are now in open political warfare. 

The party resolved at its 2017 national conference that any representative (elected or employed) who was criminally charged should step aside. Several months ago, the party's Integrity Commission ruled that Magashule must stand down after being charged with 74 counts of corruption and fraud for the squandering of R233-million in an asbestos roof audit in the Free State. He did not do so. Magashule argued during the four-day NEC meeting that the rule has been unevenly applied. He has also argued that he can only be instructed to step aside by a conference of branches that elected him. But the NEC rejected this argument, which the reform wing defeated, Hafajee writes.