A top African National Congress team, led by secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, jets into Cape Town on Thursday to end the vicious in-fighting in the province's ANC ranks ahead of the party's provincial conference in June.
During the past few weeks, splits in the provincial party have become clear as rival groups - led by Premier Ebrahim Rasool on one hand, and party provincial secretary and transport MEC Mcebisi Skwatsha on the other - rallied support.
At the heart of the conflict is the fight for the top five posts - chairman, deputy chairman, secretary, deputy secretary and treasurer - to be elected at the provincial conference.
The fight took an ugly turn last Friday when the Skwatsha faction held a secret caucus meeting in Gugulethu, where a plan was hatched to use ANC branches and the media to attack Rasool, the provincial chairman.
The strategy essentially agitates for anarchy in the provincial ANC for short-term political gain.
The meeting, which was chaired and led by provincial legislature member Max Ozinsky, also saw the unveiling of a list of 20-odd candidates with the support of the Skwatsha faction at the provincial congress.
This list excludes Rasool and all his supporters, including most of the provincial ministers in his cabinet.
Neither Skwatsha nor Rasool was present at the meeting.
The top five on the list are MP James Ngculu as provincial chairman, Skwatsha as deputy chairman, provincial legislature member Whitey Jacobs or MP Lerumo Kalako as secretary-general, MP Randall van der Heever as deputy secretary and finance MEC Lynne Brown as treasurer.
Several names were punted for the extended provincial executive, including city mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, MPLs Garth Strachan, Ozinsky, Yusuf Gabru, Travelgate fraudster Rhoda Joemat, businessman Chris Nissen, Allen Paulse, Elise Visser, Zou Khota, and Jonathan Arendse.
The Cape Argus has also uncovered what appears to be a plot to discredit journalists and media institutions seen by Skwatsha's camp as being too close to Rasool or his supporters.
One strategy is reportedly to use a DA member of the provincial legislature to discredit journalists by asking defamatory questions in the provincial parliament under the protection of parliamentary privilege.
Another strategy is to write letters to the media branding certain journalists as "racist".
Several sources who spoke to the Cape Argus after the Gugulethu meeting said they were "appalled" at the discussion and proposed plan. They said several key ANC regional leaders were present including Strachan, City of Cape Town regional secretary Mbulelo Ncedana and Matthew Parks.
Strachan left shortly after the meeting started.
Asked for comment on the allegations, Ozinsky said: "Your article is based on lies and distortion. I am not prepared to respond on internal ANC issues in the press... I don't trust your ethics as a journalist."
Asked to explain what he meant, he hung up.
A copy of our story was then sent to the ANC's head office in Johannesburg, which prompted the party's decision to send its top trouble-shooters - Motlanthe, presidential parliamentary counsellor Manne Dipeko and Social Welfare Minister Zola Skweyiya - to Cape Town to sort out the problem.
They will meet the party's provincial executive committee today and give Ozinsky a chance to explain himself before a decision is taken on his future within the party.
The need for a head office rescue mission is ironic, given that when he became premier just a year ago, Rasool said he would bring political stability to the province. "The circus is over," he declared.
Sources at Friday's meeting in Gugulethu said Ozinsky had raised the topic of how to mobilise branches in a media campaign. He called on branches to write letters to the ANC national head office in Johannesburg, and to provide information to the media attacking Rasool and people in his camp.
Ozinsky reportedly started off by attacking Rasool's "Home For All" campaign, which attempts to build unity across races and cultures and classes in the Western Cape.
A source at the meeting, who declined to be named, said: "Max agitated for branches to enter the fray formally and informally by becoming named and unnamed sources against Rasool and those who see him as a credible leader."
There was also allegedly a political discussion on how the Skwatsha-aligned group would handle the branch general meetings now taking place across the province.
These meetings are held to nominate people to the ANC's provincial executive committee ahead of next month's provincial conference.
Ozinsky called for "tighter management" of the branch meetings, and said Skwatsha supporters would be sent to the meetings to ensure the election of delegates sympathetic to their cause.
On Monday a letter was sent by Skwatsha to all ANC branches, regional executive committees and provincial executive committee members, stating that no one would be allowed to attend branch general meetings if not deployed by the "provincial organising department" - under Skwatsha - and the regional offices, most of which support Skwatsha. This appeared to confirm Ozinsky's reported strategy.
Ozinsky reportedly told the meeting it was time to end Rasool's leadership of the party in the Western Cape. The names on his proposed list did not reflect the wider provincial membership because the calibre of leadership in rural areas was not up to standard.
He then went on to unveil the names of ANC politicians for which the Skwatsha group wanted support at the provincial conference.
The Cape Argus received several calls from people who had been present, saying they were "disgusted" with the implications of the meeting.