Cape Town - The ANC Dullah Omar Region in the Western Cape is split over whether Jacob Zuma should remain party president, the Cape Times reported on Wednesday.
Deputy chairman Faizel Moosa and secretary Vuyiso Tyhalisisu were reportedly at odds over whether to back Zuma or deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe at the party's elective conference in Mangaung next month.
The region covers Cape Town and is the largest in the province.
Tyhalisisu told an ANC Youth League special general council: “The regional leadership is clear - change is inevitable.”
He told the meeting that those who wanted to maintain the current African National Congress leadership were solely interested in looting the public purse.
“We are going to lose our dignity. We are going to be turned into political prostitutes,” he reportedly said.
Moosa said the secretary had no mandate to state the region supported Motlanthe.
“This type of behaviour reminds one of the unruly, ill-disciplined and vitriolic actions of some youth in February this year who, in their desperate attack on the persona of the president, confuse thuggery, hooliganism and opportunism for legitimate political process, debate and contestation.”
According to the report, half of the region's 110 branches had qualified to be represented at Mangaung, and 45 had already completed their branch meetings. - Sapa