Johannesburg - The ANC has slammed the door closed to members and structures calling for a special national consultative conference to save the troubled party from growing internal divisions.
Two ANC provinces - Gauteng and the Eastern Cape - have called on the party to convene a consultative conference at which it should “engage in robust introspection” and correct its course.
Party stalwart Professor Ben Turok, who has also called for such a conference, has said in an interview that the increasing bitterness between opposing camps in the ANC could bring about a dramatic event that would be a game-changer for the party and the government.
The SACP added its voice on Saturday to the calls for a consultative conference.
There have been growing calls for change in the ANC despite a decision by the party’s national executive committee to take collective responsibility for its weakness and the loss of support in the elections.
The two provinces have also said the actions of individual party leaders have tainted the image of the ANC - a statement seen as a veiled reference to President Jacob Zuma.
But ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said in awide-ranging interview that the ANC’s constitution made no provision for a consultative conference.
Mantashe told The Sunday Independent that the party would meet a delegation from the #OccupyLuthuliHouse movement on Tuesday afternoon “because we want to take them through their memorandum”.
The group, who led a march to the ANC’s Luthuli House headquarters on Monday, have submitted a memorandum demanding, among other things, the immediate resignation of Zuma, the immediate resignation of the ANC national executive committee and the formation of a task team of stalwarts to take the ANC to a consultative conference for renewal.
Mantashe said the party had had only three consultative conferences in its history: in Lobatse in 1962, in Morogoro, Tanzania in 1969 and in Kabwe, Zambia in 1985.
He said these had been convened because the ANC was operating in exile outside of the country away from its base and membership.
“Now I have not been given by anybody who talks of a consultative conference any definition of the envisaged conference viz-Ã-vis the description that was given by OR Tambo of the three that were in exile,” Mantashe said.
The party’s constitution, he added, provided only for an early conference or a special conference.
A special conference could be convened only by the NEC or a majority of five provinces.
“It can be a special conference if it discusses specific items, you can’t have it with a general agenda, you must determine up front that this conference is convened to deal with X, Y and Z.
“In the public pronouncements, we don’t hear people referring to those processes. A consultative conference is not provided for anywhere in the constitution of the ANC.”
Mantashe took aim at some party veterans who have called on the leadership of the ANC to resign.
Mantashe has appeared to be increasingly engaged in quelling fires in the divided ANC in the fallout over the party’s disappointing performance in the elections and amid increasing calls from within the party for Zuma to step down.
In recent weeks, Mantashe has publicly rebuked the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association and the ANC’s women and youth leagues, who have been part of a faction supporting Zuma - and even ministers.
Last week, former ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga and former KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu penned scathing articles for the media on the ANC.
Political Bureau