Zuma deals with unity crisis: SACP’s position in BCM also to be looked at

President Jacob Zuma yesterday threw his political weight into efforts to deal with the “crisis of unity” within the ANC alliance in his keynote address at the Eastern Cape provincial alliance summit in East London.

While ANC spokespersons yesterday officially played down the significance of problems within the ruling alliance, recent events have suggested that in the provincial alliance, factionalism might bedevil the party’s election campaign efforts to maintain its grip on the province later this year.

Provincial secretary-general Oscar Mabuyane stated emphatically yesterday that provinces had to get behind the party’s national positions ahead of the elections.

Although a similar provincial alliance summit was scheduled to start in Polokwane yesterday, Zuma chose to attend the Eastern Cape gathering.

The two-day summit, which is closed to the media, is expected to also address the position of the SACP in the Buffalo City region.

The SACP’s Buffalo City region shocked many earlier this year when it announced it would not be campaigning for the ANC towards the local government elections.

Their grievances included being left out of the nomination process for councillors.

On Saturday, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte met with the party’s Amathole branches in Komga to assess preparations for the elections.

Yesterday, Zuma, Duarte and treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize were joined by 200 other delegates to the summit, including the provincial ANC leadership and those from the alliance partners – the SACP and Cosatu – as well as the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco).

Duarte said alliance members had not mapped out any specific issues to be discussed, but members were expected to bring forward any issues that were of concern to them.

Mabuyane said all partners would be afforded time to speak on any issue they would like to be addressed at the meeting “in order to iron out any differences”.

In a separate statement released by the provincial alliance, the ANC-SACP-Cosatu-Sanco said there were a number of challenges that were confronting the alliance and that the summit would be used to develop a clear shared programme to ensure victory for the ANC in the upcoming elections.

A looming issue which affects the ANC directly, is the factional fight in which the Dr WB Rubusana (formerly BCM) region is locked.

One group has marched a number of times to both regional and provincial headquarters to demand that the BCM regional executive (REC) be disbanded and that the now-suspended secretary Pumlani Mkolo be removed.

At the heart of the dispute are the criminal charges facing a number of REC members and BCM councillors for their alleged involvement in the misuse of R5.9-million.