Oscar: disbanding PEC a step toward anarchy

The  ANC would set the wrong precedent if it decided to disband its Eastern Cape leadership structure.

This is the view of Oscar Mabuyane, who was elected in October to chair the provincial executive committee (PEC) that is now under the national microscope.

In an interview with the Dispatch yesterday, Mabuyane said a decision to disband his executive would be succumbing to anarchy.

However, if that was the ruling of the national executive committee (NEC), “we will accept the outcome”, he added.

He was speaking as ANC members in the province await the outcomes of an NEC meeting this coming weekend which will scrutinise the report of a team, led by Sbu Ndebele, that was tasked with investigating the legitimacy of Mabuyane’s PEC.

This is where the four-member task team will table its report on events leading to such a turbulent elective conference in October that one of two factions abandoned the conference.

The report will guide the NEC on whether it was constitutional for Mabuyane’s supporters to continue with electing leaders after some delegates were rushed to hospital with injuries from the fight that broke out on day three of the meeting.

“The ANC cannot succumb to anarchy. The ANC cannot set a precedent that when you go to a conference and realise that your numbers are not tallying, you must disrupt the conference.

“If you do it once, that will be a terrible precedent that the ANC will have to grapple with moving forward,” said Mabuyane.

The tabling of the report to the ANC’s highest decision-making body comes on the heels of the ANC’s filing of papers last Monday at the Constitutional Court to oppose an application to nullify a high court ruling that found Mabuyane’s PEC legitimate.

The faction supporting premier Phumulo Masualle’s bid to serve a third term as chairman against Mabuyane asked the Grahamstown High Court in December to nullify the outcomes of the conference, but the application failed.

“The only thing that is not going to help the ANC is to impose leadership on members of the ANC. The democratic nature of the ANC cannot be subverted to please those with factional interests,” said Mabuyane. However, he stressed they would accept the outcome of the NEC.

“We are not entitled to any leadership positions. We respect ANC processes. That is why we have been concerned about people who go and challenge ANC processes in courts of law because you paralyse the internal processes and the ANC’s capacity to resolve its own issues. The ANC will be stuck with this case because the NEC cannot undermine a court ruling in a constitutional democracy. That is what the ANC has to deal with,” said Mabuyane.