ANC faces a slow death in Limpopo

Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha. Picture Supplied

Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha. Picture Supplied

Published Jul 5, 2015

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Johannesburg - The ANC in Limpopo is declining and could disappear, as its membership has dropped nearly 60 percent in the past three years.

The Sunday Independent can reveal that the ruling party has experienced a decline from 161 000 to 72 000 members since December 2012. The figures are given in the party’s organisational records and are said to have been discussed by the provincial executive committee (PEC) at its latest meeting.

The dwindling numbers come at a time when many of the party’s structures appear to be in serious disarray.

* In recent months, the ANC’s biggest Ethekwini (Durban) region has failed to hold its elective conference because of infighting.

* The ANC Youth and Women’s Leagues’ elective conferences have been postponed because of similar problems.

* The party has yet to convene its national general council – it has been postponed due to simmering tensions in party structures.

* Some SACP provincial leaders are said to be debating whether the party should contest the local government elections next year independently of the ANC. Divisions between the ANC and SACP are more pronounced in Mpumalanga. The SACP is to hold its national conference next week.

* The situation is even more dire as the ANC prepares for its national general council in September – Cosatu members are divided between the federation’s president, S’dumo Dlamini, and expelled general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.

* Julius Malema’s EFF appears to be making inroads into former ANC strongholds in Limpopo.

“The leadership led by Limpopo ANC provincial chairman Stan Mathabatha and ANC provincial secretary Nocks Seabi is more factional than the Cassel Mathale regime (was). On top of that, they can’t even run the organisation, let alone organise events,” a crestfallen PEC member said this week.

“Although people said Mathale was factional, his executive was quite capable of running the organisation. They inspired confidence and the organisation was alive and vibrant.”

In March 2013, the ANC national executive committee (NEC) took an unprecedented decision to dissolve the provincial structure after its leadership backed Kgalema Motlanthe and not Jacob Zuma to lead the party, at the 53rd ANC national congress in Mangaung in December 2012.

The ANC, however, said it had taken this step because the party’s provincial leadership was responsible for the massive corruption that led to the provincial government not being able to meet its financial obligations. This also led to the intervention of the national government.

“This decline is a residual effect of the NEC’s decision to disband Mathale and collective. They will rue the day they dissolved Limpopo. There is apathy everywhere. The current leadership was parachuted in, hence they can’t even fill a hall when they host events,” said an ANC Youth League PEC member.

The apathy was evident during last month’s provincial memorial lecture organised in honour of ANC stalwart Walter Sisulu in the provincial capital, Polokwane.

The PEC had spared no effort in organising the event, addressed by NEC member and cabinet minister Thulas Nxesi. The Sunday Independent counted no more than 60 people in attendance.

“Comrade Thulas came all the way to address empty chairs.

“Not even a branch memorial lecture can be guilty of drawing so small a crowd. We were so embarrassed and it is high time we admitted the current leadership can’t run this organisation,” a PEC member said.

The provincial ANC was also outdone by the EFF during the party’s June 16 commemoration event. The EFF organised an event in the Peter Mokaba region. It pulled a bigger crowd.

 

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, provincial spokeswoman for the ANC, has conceded that the decline in ANC membership is of grave concern.

“We had challenges in Mogalakwena in the Waterberg region.

“The NEC had to deploy its members to solve the leadership problems in Mogalakwena.”

Political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni said the decline in party membership in the province could be attributed to a number of factors.

First, “one expects numbers to drop and then pick up again in between conferences. However, a party that organises around events eventually cannot sustain itself.”

Second, according to Fikeni, the absence of the youth league structures has sent some of the younger members into the EFF camp – “especially if one considers that (former ANCYL head and now EFF leader) Julius Malema is from that area”.

Fikeni added that divisions in the ruling party also had a negative effect.

The Sunday Independent

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