Oscar blames NDZ- aligned members for court case

ANC Eastern Cape chairman Oscar Mabuyane said he was convinced more than ever that disgruntled party members aligned to the defeated Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma campaign prior to the Nasrec conference, were behind a “plot” to destabilise the organisation.

Mabuyane was speaking to the Daily Dispatch late last night in the wake of a court application submitted to the South Gauteng High Court challenging the legitimacy of the ANC Eastern Cape provincial executive committee (PEC) elected at the controversial conference held in East London late last year.

He said the group were Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) regional executive committee members who “surprisingly” appointed two advocates from Durban and Cape Town.

Mabuyane said the ANC NMB regional office “did not have money” and that there was no way they could have launched the court matter without a financial assistance from someone or people “hellbent on destabilising the ANC. This clearly shows that we were being plotted against for selfish interests.

“I want to believe the suspicions that there are people within the ANC who are building a political organisation and it is something we should worry about.”

Mabuyane dismissed reports that the PEC had been disbanded adding that a decision was taken in March that the national executive committee (NEC) recognised the new PEC, and set aside the Sbu Ndebele report.

He also slammed the Ndebele report which the applicants are basing their court case. “The Ndebele report had lots of flaws in terms of what they themselves had done. It was incoherent. The body of the report was something else and the recommendations were talking something else which was not contained in the body of the report.”

•  Yesterday the Sowetan reported that the ANC was under siege as party members aligned to former president Jacob Zuma and president Cyril Ramaphosa continue to fight in the provinces.

This was happening in the provinces that were supposed to hold their provincial conferences to elect new leaders with the supporters of both factions wanting to hold on to power.

Yesterday the party leaders held a special NEC meeting outside Pretoria to deal with these problems.

As the ANC leaders who include president Cyril Ramaphosa and his deputy David Mabuza met, the South Gauteng High Court was hearing a matter brought by a faction that lost Eastern Cape provincial conference.

Outside the venue of the meeting there were also Gauteng West Rand regional members who were protesting against the provincial leadership claiming branch meetings had been manipulated by leaders for a particular outcome for their up coming regional conference.

ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule confirmed that the ANC Eastern Cape provincial conference was being challenged in court.

“The case is on. We will await the outcome of the case,” he said.

The court has said we must give them whatever necessary documents in terms of the Sbu Ndebele report.”

Magashule told journalists yesterday that ANC officials will visit the Eastern Cape in a bid to unite the leadership in the province.

Ndebele was asked by the NEC to lead a team to investigate the Eastern Cape conference which saw members hitting each other with chairs but the ANC never implemented his recommendations.

Ndebele recommended that the provincial leadership which won the conference and was pro-Ramaphosa to be disbanded and an inclusive task team be established.