Johannesburg - The ANC faces a penultimate week in which it has to restore order in Parliament, save Cosatu from possible implosion and prevent its youth-wing national conference from degenerating into total chaos.
These issues, along with the conundrum of how to deal with the growing malcontent around the Nkandla scandal, were among the problems that the ANC’s bigwigs deliberated on during the party’s national executive committee (NEC) meeting at the weekend.
The three-day meeting in Pretoria, which ends on Sunday, came against the backdrop of what has been described as a “constitutional crisis” following yet another chaotic week in Parliament.
In the latest episode in the spate of public spats in the National Assembly, ANC MPs and their counterparts from opposition benches heckled and traded barbs on Wednesday.
The ugly scenes, a result of the discontent over President Jacob Zuma’s alleged failure to account for unduly benefiting from the “obscenely excessive” and “opulent costs” in the upgrades at his private Nkandla home brought an abrupt end to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s truce, brokered on Monday.
Ramaphosa’s fragile deal came a day after the ANC held a national working committee at its Luthuli House headquarters in Joburg. With that deal now in tatters, the ANC’s top brass were locked in intense discussions on how to conjure another truce to restore Parliament’s decorum.
On Saturday, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party remained hopeful that it would broker a new deal between itself and the opposition.
“The ANC will (push)… to engage opposition in constructive discussions. Our efforts to find a solution will not end,” Mantashe said, speaking on the sidelines of the ruling party’s last NEC meeting for the year at St George Hotel in Pretoria.
He said the ANC was not deterred by the collapse of the truce. “(The ANC) will continue to try and persuade them (opposition parties) to move away from anarchy,” Mantashe said.
He confirmed that the rowdy sessions in Parliament formed part of the ANC’s national working committee report under discussion, along with the crisis facing Cosatu and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) national conference, which starts on Tuesday.
There are fears that the ANCYL conference could degenerate into the type of chaos last seen in 2008, when former president Julius Malema was elected.
The road to the 2014 national conference at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto campus has been marred by acts of violence and intimidation because of the disputes over the credentials of the regional conferences and membership audits.
“There is a general feeling that the issue of Nkandla is harming the integrity of the ANC, especially in view of the local government elections,” said another source.
“There’s a possibility that some (NEC) members might suggest the president be advised to consider paying for the non-security costs to try and put this issue to rest.”
The ANC is worried a Cosatu split could harm it, especially in terms of the local government elections in 2016. With the party’s task team led by Ramaphosa having failed in its bid to convince the warring factions to cease hostilities, the ANC was trying to find a last-ditch solution to prevent the federation from splitting.
“The NEC has received a full briefing from Baleka Mbete and will be deliberating on the mechanisms to restore order in Parliament. The issue for the NEC has been to discuss whether the rules of Parliament must be revised or enforced,” said another source.
“On Cosatu, the ANC and the SACP discussed bilateral talks on how to save the federation.”