The African National Congress in the Northern Cape has noted with utmost disdain the correspondence from Mabuza and Inc. representing some ANC members from the province. We are presently at pains to understand the allegations contained in the letter. We need to out rightly state that the allegation that the current ANC Provincial Executive Committee of the Northern Cape is illegal or unlawful are nonsensical, spurious and absurd. Any self-respecting law practitioner would best know that such allegations must be backed up with factual evidence. The ill-conceived, misdirected and poorly crafted letter from Mabuza and Inc. is an embarrassment to the pristine legal profession in South Africa.
The complainants are demanding an indefinite postponement of the four Regional Conferences scheduled for November 2017 and allege that if these conferences are allowed to proceed they will suffer some form of prejudice or harm. However, they fail to inform us in exact detail the nature of such prejudice or harm. It is important to note that all these complainants are branch members and have guaranteed rights to fully participate as members in the processes leading to the Regional Conferences.
The ANC PEC is fully committed to protect those rights to ensure full and unhindered participation of the complainants and all other ANC members, and thus far there is nothing that the PEC has done or said to suggest otherwise.
The letter from the Office of the Secretary General that restricts hosting of Regional or Provincial Conferences after the 30 September 2017 serves as mere administrative advice to Provincial Executive Committees. The Office of the Secretary General further explained the content of the letter to the Special National Executive Committee meeting that took place on the 22nd of September 2017.
The Special National Executive Committee accepted and affirmed his explanation that the restrictions on hosting of Regional or Provincial Conferences is only applicable to regions and provinces that are due for their Conferences during the months of October, November and December as these regions will still be within their three months grace period after 2017 National Conference. The NEC has expressively made it clear that the 30 September 2017 deadline for conferences is not applicable to Regional or Provincial Conferences that are long overdue.
The four regions in the province; which are Frances Baard, Pixley ka Seme, John Taolo Gaetsewe and ZF Mgcawu, are long overdue to convene their Regional Conferences. The office term of all these regions came to an end early in 2016, and this renders the administrative advice by the Office of the Secretary General not applicable to the four regions as they are long overdue.
We therefore want to inform these members, in no uncertain terms, that these Regional Conferences will go ahead and that the PEC will not be intimidated. If there are any complaints or discomforts they have about the processes leading to the Regional Conferences there are internal organisational mechanisms at their disposal that they can utilise. Failure by these members to first use and exhaust internal organisational processes as prescribed by the ANC constitution and policies is a form of misconduct, and as such the PEC reserves its right to follow up on this matter. We want to assure all our members in the province that while the PEC works to rebuild and unite the ANC it is not going to tolerate lawlessness and ill-discipline.
Furthermore, we are of the firm view that this is a mere laughable KwaZulu Natal copycat attempt that seeks to derail the work of the ANC in the province. We are pushing forward to build and strengthen our structures strictly in terms of the ANC constitution and we are not going to be defocused on that task. So, the Regional Conferences will go ahead as scheduled and we are geared-up to defend the PEC decision on this matter.
Issued by the African National Congress- Northern Cape
Deshi Ngxanga – Provincial Secretary
Media Enquiries – Naledi Gaosekwe – Media Liaison Coordinator
This statement was released on 30/09/2017 in regards with the demand send earlier by Mabuza Attorneys – CLICK TO READ
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