Quinton Mtyala
THE ANC’s national executive committee has once again been forced to intervene in the party’s Western Cape leadership by announcing that two, or possibly three, caretakers will be appointed to fill the breach left by provincial chairperson Marius Fransman and secretary Faiez Jacobs.
Some of the ANC’s deployees to the Western Cape, like Jesse Duarte, had called on the party’s provincial executive to be placed under administration owing to the leadership vacuum.
Yesterday, the party’s top six officials, including President Jacob Zuma, his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, and secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, met the ANC’s provincial executive to announce its decision. The meeting took place at a local hotel in the CBD.
This is the second time the national executive has had to intervene in the running of the party in the Western Cape.
In 2009, the provincial executive committee (PEC), under the leadership of Mcebisi Skwatsha, was dissolved and former leaders were appointed to run the party.
Fransman is embroiled in a police investigation over claims he sexually harassed a 20-year-old Stellenbosch woman while they were travelling to the ANC’s birthday celebrations last month.
Last week, the ANC announced that it had asked him to step aside while the police investigation and that of the party’s integrity committee have been concluded.
Jacobs was suspended and faced a provincial disciplinary hearing for his alleged assault on ANC researcher Wesley Seale at the party’s provincial office in November last year.
At the weekend, the case against Jacobs was dismissed on procedural grounds and Jacobs has now asked that it be transferred to the ANC’s national disciplinary committee.
Speaking after the meeting, Mantashe said the purpose was essentially to communicate a decision to the provincial executive “face to face” after a written communiqué had been sent out last week asking that Fransman and Jacobs “step aside”.
“That is in the interest of protecting both of them and the ANC, because they must go through that process and not have the burden of carrying the load of dealing with ANC issues… We’ve agreed that despite a very serious discussion by the team of deployees here for the dissolution of the PEC, we’ve decided not to dissolve it,” said Mantashe.
He said caretakers, members of the ANC’s national executive, would be full-time caretakers.
“Full-time doesn’t mean that they will sit in the office full-time, it means that they are relieved of all their other deployments and serious tasks to look after the PEC of the Western Cape so that it is operational,” said Mantashe.
Asked how long the caretakers would be assigned to the Western Cape, Mantashe joked that he was not a prophet and could not see into the future.
He said their jobs would be concluded once separate police investigations into Fransman and Jacobs (along with his disciplinary measures) are concluded.
“At the end of that, the caretakers will make an assessment whether we should extend the period of caretaking… My assumption was that when we looked into the state of the PEC, it may go beyond this period of suspension so that we stabilise the PEC itself in the province,” said Mantashe.
While the DA sent out a statement claiming the Western Cape ANC was “under administration”, Mantashe said all the party’s six regions in the province were in good shape.
@mtyala