ANC Eastern Cape chairman Oscar Mabuyane has blamed the office of party secretary-general Ace Magashule for the “anarchy" at Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
"This anarchy is in correlation with what is orchestrated at a national level. They [anarchists] are getting instructions from elsewhere," said Mabuyane in an interview with the Dispatch on Monday.
The Sunday Times reported a few months ago that Magashule, along with several senior ANC leaders including former President Jacob Zuma, met at a Durban hotel where they crafted a plan to oust ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa.
"Senior ANC leaders attended these meetings [after Ramaphosa was elected party president in December at Nasrec] to cause anarchy, demonstrate ill-discipline and disrespect the structures of the organisation," said Mabuyane.
"We have reason to believe there is something they are cooking," he added.
The Eastern Cape PEC met some members of the ANC’s national working committee (NWC) behind closed doors on Monday.
Mabuyane tabled a report motivating why the disbandment of the party’s Nelson Mandela Bay regional structure (REC) should stay in place.
The REC has defied the order and its secretary, Themba Xathula, has written to the national executive committee (NEC) asking for the PEC’s disbandment to be rescinded.
In addition, a provincial integrity commission report that was supposed to be discussed at the same meeting motivates for controversial WB Rubusana regional chair Pumlani Mkolo’s recall.
Mkolo is one of those facing criminal charges for swindling millions earmarked for the Mandela funeral in December 2013.
Other regional executives dissolved and replaced with regional task teams (RTTs) are OR Tambo in Mthatha and Joe Gqabi in Aliwal North.
The Ntandokaxi Capa-led OR Tambo RTT and Joe Gqabi RTT convener Siya May have been hard at work steering the party's election programme.
However, things are looking less rosy in the Bay, where a meeting with the provincial working committee was disrupted a week ago and the party's "Thuma Mina" programme was shelved on Sunday.
Mabuyane said the basis for the "confusion" was a letter Magashule wrote two weeks ago banning senior structures from dissolving lower structures.
"This was misleading. And we have discussed the matter at length at the last NEC meeting, because we can't have someone sending mixed messages.
“This letter is the root cause of the anarchy playing out in ANC structures in Nelson Mandela Bay.
"We are here to defend our decision to disband that structure.
“But if this meeting has a different view after the facts are presented this afternoon (Monday), then we will abide by the decision of the higher structure," said Mabuyane.
The NWC was also expecting an update on an investigation by a deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte-led national appeals subcommittee on the legitimacy of the Rubusana elective conference held last September which elected the Mkolo-led regional executive.
But the NWC has deferred both cases to another NWC meeting scheduled for next Monday.
The meeting was shelved because some NWC members had other prior commitments...