CALLS have been made for the ANC’s provincial and national leaders to disband the leadership of the party's largest region in the Western Cape in the wake of declining voter support.
A group calling itself the Dullah Omar Regional Activists has called on the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) headed by Lerumo Kalako, to dissolve the region’s leadership structure.
This year is a critical one for ANC leadership as regional and provincial conferences will take place as a build up to the national elective conference that will be held later this year where President Cyril Ramaphosa will make a play for re-election.
In the Western Cape, a group calling for the disbandment said it was to eliminate the risk of further electoral loss in the 2024 national elections.
In November ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile promised to look into the complaints of disgruntled ANC members over the region, after about 100 people protested outside the party’s provincial head office at Constitution House.
Five years ago the region’s REC was dissolved following claims of insubordination, an inability to serve the region and factionalism.
“Consistent with the call for a new path carried in the January 8 statement, the disbandment of the ANC Dullah Omar REC is the best process to redeem the ANC in the City of Cape Town,” said the group’s Nzulu Gona.
“The ANC in the City of Cape has been at the hands of the same individuals who, for over a decade now, regressed in electoral support for every election, manipulated party political processes, sold party public representative council seats, collaborated with the DA and deliberately gave no life to the ANC.
“The earlier the current REC gets disbanded the better the ANC can build towards consolidating in 2024 general elections.
“We call upon the IPC and the NEC to disband the REC, (it is) a product of a rigged conference, an act some of its members confessed to.”
ANC provincial spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said the party did not receive the petition as yet.
“We have conducted an assessment of the elections and now we are in the process of arranging for regional conferences and the provincial conference,” he said.
“ANC January 8 statement makes mention of the fact that this is a conference year.
“With the Working Committee meeting this week, the conference road map will be discussed and because it is a conference year we do expect there to be structures and lobby groups who will be (petitioning) for a whole host of things.”