The ANC’s Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs says the chaos which preceded a decision to disband the party’s biggest region stemmed from “fierce opposition to discuss the state of the organisation”.
Instead, dissidents from the Dullah Omar (Cape Town metro) region insisted on discussing the upcoming ANC policy conference and preparations.
“But this suggestion was rejected by the PEC (provincial executive committee) and it was agreed that we should discuss all the matters as outlined on the agenda,” said Jacobs.
At a media conference on Sunday, leaders from five ANC regions insisted that Saturday’s meeting, which continued well into the early hours of Sunday, had been irregular, as were the decisions taken there, including to dissolve the Dullah Omar regional executive.
Jacobs said the PEC had elaborated on some of the policy proposals to be taken to the ANC’s policy conference, which starts on Friday, for more than seven hours.
He said at around 10.30pm on Saturday, after the PEC had concluded its discussion on the policy documents, there was an attempt to disrupt the meeting.
Jacobs said the majority of PEC members held the view that the meeting should continue. “When the report from the provincial working committee was tabled and read by the provincial secretary, a group of people from three branches in Dullah Omar stormed into our meeting.
“When we asked why they were there, they indicated that they were invited by PEC members to attend,” said Jacobs.
This incident, he added, was an attempt to disrupt the meeting.
On Sunday, ANC dissidents said the chaos within the PEC was enough proof for it to be disbanded by the party’s NEC (national executive committee).
On Saturday Jacobs, along with ANC Western NEC deployee Derek Hanekom and two members of the party’s provincial working committee, met with the disgruntled branches while the PEC meeting was adjourned.
The gripe from those who had disrupted the meeting was that Jacobs had not provided clarity on a draft report, leaked to the media, on the investigation over irregularities from the party’s list process for last year’s local government elections.
“We were tabling the report from the NEC through the PEC, through the constitutional structures, and when the time is appropriate we will not circulate it through the social media.
“We’ll circulate it through our structures,” said Jacobs.
He added that the meeting continued at 1.45am on Sunday, with 23 PEC members in attendance, with 19 out of the 35 directly elected members.
On Sunday, ANC Dullah Omar regional secretary Xolani Sotashe said that the decision of the PEC meeting was invalid as it did not meet the party’s criteria for a quorum.