The ANC in Gauteng has accused some of its members of holding the party to ransom after they threatened the party with court action if it went ahead with its regional conferences without addressing all disputes.
This comes after regional party leaders and members in the West Rand vowed to block the party from holding its elective conference if it did not settle more than 23 disputes of branches whose sittings were allegedly in breach of the ANC’s guidelines.
Last week, the party was forced to postpone all its planned regional conferences to this week and next week owing to divisions over the outcomes of branch meetings.
Regional task team member William Matsheke said the group of disgruntled leaders and members had lost confidence in the ANC’s provincial executive committee.
The party’s national leadership would have to take over the overseeing of the rerunning of processes in the disputed branches, he said.
“All these disputed branch meetings have to be rerun and be presided over by the NEC because regional and provincial leaders are conflicted.
“They have an interest. We are clear that the West Rand will not hold its conference up until all these disputes have been resolved.
“We are not going to hesitate to go to court if this does not happen,” Matsheke said.
West Rand deputy regional chairperson Mzi Khumalo - who is sympathetic to the grouping - said the NEC would meet the regional leadership and the disgruntled group tomorrow where they would call for the party’s top brass to oversee branch meetings when they undergo a rerun.
“There are deployees (regional and provincial) who deliberately ensure that meetings collapse.
“Some of them are conflicted as they have openly taken sides.
“They always want to push meetings to a particular outcome,” Khumalo said.
ANC provincial spokesperson Motalatale Modiba rejected the group’s demand for REC and PEC members to recuse themselves from processes, saying they treated themselves as exceptional.
“What is unique about these 23 branches? Why do they not want upper structures to oversee their activities?
“The guidelines are very clear. Oversight does not mean chairing the meeting but watching over the process to ensure that it is conducted in a manner that is free and fair.
“The rejection of upper structures does not arise,” Modiba said.
Tomorrow the NEC is also expected to receive appeals of disputes that were overruled by the provincial leadership from the group.
Modiba accused the group of demanding outcomes of their appeals to always favour them.
“You cannot dictate the outcome of appeals. You cannot embark on a process conditionally.
“If concerns are genuine, they will be listened to and will be heard. If it is my way and no other way, what is the point of going through these processes?
“If you enter through these internal processes single-mindedly saying you are not prepared for a particular outcome, then you are holding the party and internal processes to ransom,” Modiba said.
Some of the complaints were lodged by people who never attended the branch meetings, which was not allowed by the ANC guidelines, he said.
The West Rand and Tshwane regions are set to hold their conferences next week while Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Sedibeng conferences will be convened this weekend.
Joburg ANC spokesperson Jolidee Matongo said that of the 125 branches that qualified in the region, 115 have been success-
fully convened with 15 disputes resolved.
On Wednesday, the ANC national appeals committee will visit the region to assess how the province has dealt with disputes, before the conference starts on Friday.
The provincial conference is scheduled for early next month.