As the Eastern Cape ANC heads to Luthuli House to report on what transpired at its humiliating and postponed provincial elective conference, insiders have called for calm amid calls for the provincial secretary to be suspended.
The much-anticipated conference descended into chaos, beset by legal challenges, a bogus resignation, stranded delegates awaiting a postponement and senior leaders absent during the meetings as factional divisions deepened.
On Saturday, ANC provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane, whose third-term ambitions have been put on hold, told delegates at a cadres forum that provincial executive committee members (PEC) would give a report on what transpired.
The conference was turned into a cadres forum after an interim interdict preventing it from going ahead.
It was postponed on Saturday.
At the centre of what would have been the contest are Mabuyane and provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi, whose political relationship has come full circle, from allies to rivals battling for control of the party in the province.
Mabuyane is contesting a third term.
The conference would have seen the Ngcukayitobi faction, aligned to the “Thina Bantu” grouping, squaring off against Mabuyane’s “Thina Masebe” faction.
It is understood that Mabuyane is eyeing a third term to bolster his national political ambitions, with his name circulating as a potential ANC deputy president on secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s slate.
Mbalula is believed to be aiming for the party presidency in 2027.
During his address, Mabuyane assured delegates the conference would sit by the end of April.
The ANC convenor of deployees to the province, Mmamoloko Kubayi, assured delegates there was no leadership vacuum as the PEC’s term only lapsed in May.
She said the party’s national executive committee would deal with the issue.
“As deployees, we will compile a report because they’re also asking themselves — officials of the national executive committee — what’s happening.
“We need to compile a report and account,” Kubayi said.
An application for an interim interdict brought by disgruntled members seeking to prohibit the continuation of the conference was granted by the high court in KuGompo City on Thursday.
A contempt of court case was subsequently launched against several ANC leaders — including Fikile Mbalula — for allegedly undermining the interim interdict.
The high court in KuGompo City on Saturday morning postponed the application for a contempt of court order against 12 ANC members without a set date.
High court judge MJ Lowe removed the application from the urgency roll.
All this while more than 1,000 party supporters were gathered at the East London ICC hoping to elect the province’s new leadership.
In a letter to delegates on Saturday morning, Ngcukayitobi informed the party structures that the conference had been postponed until further notice.
“Accordingly, all delegates, ANC leagues and alliance, guests and representatives of ANC structures are advised of this postponement, with the best wishes for everyone [for] a safe journey as you return to your respective homes,” Ngcukayitobi said.
Dramatic scenes played out on Saturday afternoon when Mabuyane addressed the forum as delegates celebrated news that Ngcukayitobi had apparently resigned.
A letter on social media purported that he had resigned on Saturday, but Ngcukayitobi said the letter was fake.
On Sunday, ANC regional and provincial leaders gathered a few metres from the ICC.
A senior ANC leader in the province called for calm, saying that attempting to punish Ngcukayitobi would not be doing the organisation any favours.
“Yes, there are talks that the provincial secretary must be suspended, but you don’t suspend someone at the tail-end of the term.
“But what we’re not going to do is elect someone to a different position when he failed at the task he was given.
“Remember, this is someone who’s resigned on two previous occasions, and as people who elected him, we were never told or given the reasons why he was resigning but simply told after the fact.
“Clearly, he was saying to the organisation that the task given to him is too much to handle, so how can we give him an even greater task of being chair?
“That in itself is a job even harder than the one he’s doing now.
“We can call for calm, no suspension, but we give him a new task because the reason we’re here now is that he was absent in his current role. This is by design,” the insider said.
Another member said that had branches been given a voice at the forum, they would have called for Ngcukayitobi’s suspension.
“This is dereliction of duty.
“Ngcukayitobi has been absent for much of the time leading up to the conference and spent most of his time on the farm.
“Suddenly, he wants to appear to play a leadership role.”
The insider also flagged Ngcukayitobi’s absence from the post–provincial executive committee address, where provincial leaders briefed delegates in the plenary.
“He was meant to be in chambers. Instead, he chose to get in his car and drive to a farm or wherever he went.
“Unfortunately, we were not allowed to speak on Saturday. We were going to ask that he be suspended because there’s no secretary in this province.
“We can’t listen to someone who used proxies to litigate the conference. He’s behind all the chaos that happened.”
On Saturday, Ngcukayitobi said the ANC was in an unfortunate position as the conference could have run smoothly had all the party’s guidelines been followed.
“We are [sitting] with a situation wherein I was told [on Friday] there are still pending matters that relate to the internal remedies and so far as the process of disputes is concerned, but there are things that are factual that we can lay our head on.”
Ngcukayitobi said the judgment was explicit that the conference must be held in abeyance until all internal remedies were exhausted.
“So the letter that came from the SG informing us of putting the conference in abeyance and also instances that could not have been avoided, given the circumstances around the conference.”
On Friday, Mbalula wrote to Ngcukayitobi and the PEC to hold the conference in abeyance until court processes were concluded.
“Otherwise, it was a very unfortunate situation in which the ANC finds itself having to hold the conference on the doorstep of its convening,” Ngcukayitobi said.
“Certainly, we could have anticipated some of the things and found mechanisms to mitigate against them.
“I can just talk about my opinion, and it’s an opinion based on what the guidelines provide for.”
Pressed on the root of the province’s turmoil and how it could have been avoided, Ngcukayitobi said internal voices within the party were crucial and should have been heeded.
During his address to delegates, Mabuyane said the conference was not about filling positions.
“It is not about the ambitions of individuals or the narrow interests of factions. We must put an end to petty squabbles and personal jealousies.
“Comrades, the persistence of factionalism, personality cults and narrow interests creates fertile ground for infiltration and manipulation.
“To put it bluntly ... what is currently under way are the seeds of counter-revolution.
“These divisions are often neither organic nor innocent. They are sponsored, amplified and exploited by forces hostile to the liberation movement.”
Some PEC officials, such as Ngcukayitobi and outgoing treasurer Zolile Williams, were absent during meetings, which Mabuyane criticised.
He said the PEC had instructed all its members to be present when he delivered the news to delegates that the conference had been postponed.
Mabuyane said the strategy to collapse the conference had started long before the court process.
The Herald
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