The meeting of the ANC’s national working committee and the party’s Western Cape executive kicked off without much fanfare, with belligerents on either side of the party’s factional divide confident that their side would triumph.
Supporters of ANC president Jacob Zuma, and by extension the presidential ambitions of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, are demanding that the party’s provincial executive be disbanded following the disbandment last month of the Dullah Omar (Cape Town) region.
At the weekend Zuma met Dullah Omar region representatives while other leaders were dispatched to regions around the province.
The meeting at the Fire & Ice Hotel lasted several hours, with some participants describing the atmosphere as “robust” with both sides voicing their points of view.
As the meeting concluded, members of the provincial executive were in jovial mood, singing and whistling, knowing that calls for their disbandment had been repulsed. ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party’s provincial executive had presented their report to the national working committee.
“After receiving the reports from the regions we could not finish our work, we did not want to suppress ideas. We are suspecting that if we agree we will be here next week
“If you think you were distorted, we will come back. We want to rebuild the ANC in the Western Cape as a contestant that is serious about 2019,” said Mantashe.
“Anything we do now will be speculation, it’s a work in progress.”