Durban - The meeting of the ANC top leadership with branches of the eThekwini region was last evening postponed indefinitely - because more time was needed to engage with the provincial executive.
The meeting with branches began three hours after the scheduled time because national leaders, led by President Jacob Zuma, were earlier locked in a closed meeting.
Tuesday’s meetings were geared to find solutions to problems experienced in the party’s biggest region.
The region previously met four times to elect leadership, with two of its conferences postponed, while two others were cancelled.
In a statement, the ANC said a date for another meeting with branches would be announced.
“The leadership felt that there were still more organisational issues the national officials had to discuss with the provincial executive committee (PEC) before the meeting with branches could take place,” the ANC said.
It also said the meeting with the PEC, which was to have taken place later last night, was to discuss “a variety of organisational issues”.
Party insiders said Zuma, who addressed the meeting, seemed to want the root cause of the problem identified.
“But, it is clear that the PEC is divided in the middle,” said a source who is not authorised to speak to the media.
“They could not finish the business of the day with the PEC, as questions are being asked on problems that are administrative. It seems there is finger-pointing within the PEC, and that creates problems for the region and the branches,” the source added.
Another party insider agreed, saying the president said the agenda of the PEC and national leaders was long.
“That is why they had to postpone our meeting,” said the source.
“It will give them a clear picture of intervention that is required.”
The sources also said Zuma indicated that the ANC needed to first tackle its internal problems in eThekwini region before reconvening another conference.
“The issue is that there are many issues in the PEC. Zuma was saying there was no reason to rush the conference because conferences can have solutions, but the worst is entrenching divisions,” the source said.
Meanwhile, disgruntled ANC members from some branches in the Lower South Coast region left empty-handed without obtaining an answer from the top leaders to the complaint they lodged over the region’s conference held last November.
The group, armed with placards, had planned to picket outside the Durban City Hall, but were barred on grounds that they would flout municipal by-laws.
They claimed that they were told to wait to meet the secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe, after the meeting with eThekwini branches, but that did not happen.
“He does not show interest to attend to our problem. We were the first to lodge a complaint. Now we want to engage with Msholozi (Zuma) and (deputy president Cyril) Ramaphosa.
“If that does not happen, we plan to stage a sit-in at the ANC offices,” said ANC member Mbongeni Ngcungama.
Daily News