Durban - The bitter ANC eThekwini regional elective conference, which has seen fists fly, knives pulled and guns fired, is threatening to tear apart the party’s alliance with the SACP in the city.
The SACP in eThekwini on Tuesday said ANC leaders in the city were sidelining the party and had recently disrupted a Joe Slovo Memorial lecture which was scheduled to take place at Thokoza hostel near Greyville.
SACP district secretary Thabani Luthuli said party members were confronted by a marauding mob of ANC members outside the women’s hostel and were “violently prevented” from entering.
“These ANC branch officials said that they could not allow the SACP to hold the Joe Slovo Memorial, because it was not sanctioned by them. That alone made the SACP realise that there are people who have ascended to leadership positions in our structures and do not understand both the ANC and SACP,” Luthuli said.
“It is unthinkable that members of the ANC, let alone leadership at this particular time, (would) act against the SACP in that manner. It is a clear indication of ‘corruptreneurs’ and tenderpreneurs running amok within our organisation.
“It is not time for any of our organisations to build enemies, instead, we need more allies to be able to confront the current onslaught on our alliance and the government,” he said.
The latest incident has been linked to the increasingly bitter tussle for the powerful position of ANC chairman of the eThekwini region.
The position is being contested by the current mayor, James Nxumalo (also the chairman of the SACP in the province) and regional ANC treasurer and veteran councillor, Zandile Gumede.
The person who emerges as chairman at the elective conference is likely to become the next eThekwini mayor after the 2016 local government elections – and control the city’s R36 billion budget.
On Tuesday, a group of 50 ANC supporters from KwaXimba marched and protested outside the ANC’s provincial headquarters in Durban to voice their dismay at the allocation of 11 delegates to the conference that will decide the eThekwini region’s top leaders ahead of the local government elections next year.
The group was disheartened about where the delegates who were selected had come from.
Their meeting last year was suspended because of violence between factions supporting Nxumalo and Gumede.
Speaking to the Daily News on Tuesday, the ANC’s provincial secretary, Sihle Zikalala, said the matter would be investigated by the party’s provincial working committee (PWC).
“They are complaining about processes of their branch general meeting which was held some time ago… We have assured them that we will deal with their matter because it is still an internal matter within the organisation.
“We will give them space and listen to them and solve their concerns,” he said.
Zikalala said the delegates were deployed by the regional leadership.
The conference date had not yet been decided, he added, saying the date would be communicated to the ANC structures before being made public.
Asked if KwaXimba was the only unsettled branch, he said there had been no major issues elsewhere and that the process had been completed.
Luthuli said that the Joe Slovo lecture had nothing to do with the eThekwini regional conference.
He said it was shocking that some of the ANC members were chanting that they “now understand why the boers banned the SACP, because they don’t want us to eat at eThekwini; that’s why they don’t want mama (Gumede)”.
“These acts have demonstrated that there are elements penetrated in our organisation who now want to take the centre stage. These elements have no regard to the history of the alliance; the character of each alliance partner.
“The disruption of an event to commemorate the icon of South African struggle has been something unthinkable in the history of South Africa.
“The act itself has all the hallmarks of rubbishing the liberation struggle and all the sacrifices and work of our heroes,” he said.
Daily News