The ANC national executive committee (NEC) on Monday morning continued to meet with party leaders in KwaZulu-Natal to deal with power struggle that has emanated from the recent Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling.
The NEC delegation includes some of its top six led by President Jacob Zuma and party general secretary
.
On Sunday they met with the provincial executive committee, whose election in November 2015
by the full bench of the high court.
The NEC on Monday is expected to meet with the ANC provincial rebels who are led by Senzo Mchunu who was ousted by Sihle Zikalala as the provincial chairman.
The NEC is believed to be in Durban to address both parties on whether it had decided to grant the PEC a right to appeal the judgment or not.
There are no visible signs of political activity on Pixley ka Seme Street in front of Coastlands hotel with the exception of police and presidential bodyguards standing at the hotel entrance. A large number of police vehicles were stationed around the hotel.
As a group of Independent Media journalists entered the hotel they bumped into some senior leaders of the rebels, who included KwaZulu-Natal MPL Jomo Sibiya and Nigel Gumede, former eThekwini Municipality’s Housing Portfolio Committee and Infrastructure chairperson.
They were arriving for the meeting, but both declined to comment when asked about their expectations of the meeting.
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“We did not even bring our phones,” said Sibiya as they went through tight security before disappearing into a conference room.
The NEC had on Sunday spent the whole day with the PEC, but no one would reveal what was discussed. The rebels, through their spokesperson Sthembiso Mshengu, had made it clear that they want the NEC to implement the court judgment by disbanding the PEC and replacing it with a provincial task team comprising of leaders from both camps.
Some of the PEC members who were at the meeting on Sunday said it was unlikely that the PEC would be disbanded although they did not elaborate. They said Zuma had chaired the meeting.
However, after Sunday’s meeting ANC provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli released a statement saying the meeting had discussed challenges facing the national democratic revolution “in general, and KZN in particular”.
“The centre is still holding,” he said.
ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa would not divulge what had been discussed.
Instead, he issued a short statement saying there would not be any media briefing regarding the meeting.
“This is due to various deployment and engagements of the ANC national leadership,” he said.