MBOMBELA – The provincial leadership of the ruling ANC continues to ignore its branches, according to the Save the ANC Mpumalanga campaign.
The grouping is threatening to approach the courts to stop the provincial general council (PGC) from taking place in Mpumalanga in October, where provincial chairman Mr David Mabuza will seek a third term.
Organisers of the movement, Mr Sipho Monareng and Mr Senzeni Ngubeni, say they have followed all prescribed internal procedures to have their grievances addressed, but to no avail.
Following the suspension of Mr Peter Nyoni from the provincial executive committee (PEC) in July, for helping to plan a march by the Save the ANC Mpumalanga campaign, the group nonetheless marched on the provincial offices on July 31, to hand a memorandum of their grievances to the PEC, which refused to accept it.
It took the matter up with the ANC national executive committee (NEC), but three weeks later, hadn’t heard anything from Luthuli House, says Monareng. The group has also collected thousands of signatures requesting the NEC to disband the Mpumalanga PEC.
Save the ANC Mpumalanga called a press conference on Tuesday, saying it will take the matter to court if it doesn’t hear from Luthuli House by this coming Wednesday.
Monareng says they intend to ask the court to prevent the PGC from taking place in October, on the grounds that the decision taken for the chairman to serve a third term at the general council earlier this year was invalid, because the ANC’s constitution was violated in determining the voting “delegates”.
“They were not mandated by the branch, they were not delegates.”
he PGC was also moved up to October from March 2016 when it was scheduled to take place. The faction intends to ask the court that the PGC only take place next year as initially planned.
“The PEC doesn’t have the willingness and ability to seriously resolve these complaints because it’s all about a third term for an individual. ”
The spokesman for the provincial ANC, Mr Sibusiso Themba, referred all queries to the provincial secretary Mr Lucky Ndinisa, who could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.
