The ANC in the Eastern Cape is likely go to next year’s elections without elected leaders in three of its regions.
Party provincial bosses announced on Tuesday they had disbanded the Nelson Mandela Bay regional executive committee and dissolved regional structures in OR Tambo and Joe Gqabi.
Regional task teams (RTTs) will be appointed by next week to manage the party’s affairs and prepare the regions for elective conferences.
Failure by party members to recognise the new structures could negatively impact how the ANC performs at the polls.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said the provincial executive committee had taken a decision to dissolve the regions.
The decision comes as the party’s regional leadership in the Dr WB Rubusana region hangs in the balance after some branches disputed the election of the Pumlani Mkolo-led regional executive committee.
Ngcukayitobi said the province had disbanded the three regions because of internal squabbles and protracted delays for them to hold elective conferences.
“OR Tambo and Joe Gqabi regions’ terms of office lapsed [in] October. The PEC took as a matter of formality their dissolution and therefore gave a responsibility to the PWC [provincial working committee] to establish regional task teams, which will have about 30 members,” Ngcukayitobi said.
He said the Nelson Mandela region, which was supposed to convene its regional general council and failed, had been dissolved as the party found that the region was incapable of making 70% of functioning branches.
“All our reports indicate that the region was in the margin of about 60% functionality and that’s not acceptable. The region has also not had a regional chair for about a year,” he said.
Andile Lungisa was instructed to resign as the Bay’s regional boss last year because he was already a member of the PEC.
The fate of the Dr WB Rubusana region is subject to a probe by the party’s national disputes committee. The PWC is expected to produce the names of the members likely to make it to the task teams by next week.
Ngcukayitobi said for the sake of stability, there would be an element of continuity of the current core of leaders in the regions in the RTTs.
The party recently held a regional general council in Alfred Nzo and regional conferences at Sarah Baartman and Dr WB Rubusana. Ngcukayitobi said the PEC also instructed the PWC to ensure Lungisa, given until last Friday to step down from the Nelson Mandela Metro mayoral committee, be implemented with urgency...