Mpumalanga African National Congress (ANC) Deputy Chairperson, Speed Mashilo has told delegates at the Ehlanzeni regional conference to disband all lobby groups and work towards rebuilding the party.
Mashilo was delivering the keynote address at the eighth regional conference of the Ehlanzeni region in Mbombela.
ANC Ehlanzeni regional conference in Mpumalangay: Nonhlanhla Jele updates
About 290 delegates are expected to vote for new leadership. Jackie Macie and Gileon Mashigo have been nominated for the Chairperson positions.
Mashilo says there are no winners and losers as its all about the ANC.
“Comrade, all of us have lobby groups, those are not factions. We are in a conference the ANC taught us that after conference, all lobby groups must be disbanded, tomorrow we must be united,” SAYS Mashilo.
ANC gives all provinces green light to hold their conferences
ANC Treasurer-General, Paul Mashatile said national officials will ensure that they attend three of the conferences in the build-up to the party’s 55th national elective conference in December.
“Mpumalanga will hold its provincial conference this coming weekend. The Eastern Cape from the 22nd to the 24th of April. The conferences of the Western Cape, North West and Gauteng are scheduled to take place in May and June of this year. The KwaZulu-Natal province will probably be early July,” explains Mashatile.
In the video below, the ANC is addressing the media:
Eastern Cape endorses Mabuyane
Meanwhile, the ANC Women’s League Provincial Task Team (PTT) in the Eastern Cape has endorsed Premier Oscar Lubabalo Mabuyane as the party’s Provincial Chairperson, Mlungisi Mvoko as his Deputy and Lulama Ngcukaitobi as the Provincial Secretary.
Mabuyane was the provincial Chairperson before the disbandment of the provincial executive committee. He is currently the convener of the Provincial Task Team.
The decision follows the outcomes of a provincial task team (PTT) meeting held over the weekend in preparation for the Provincial Elective Conference later this year.
The PTT also resolved that the ANC in the Eastern Cape should elect at least two women from the province to form part of the ANC’s top brass.
ANC Women’s League PTT Convener, Bukiwe Fanta says the decision was taken unanimously.
“The PTT that sat on Saturday was a fully-fledged PTT. It included all the regions that were part of its PTT members directly elected. Even our provincial Secretary. We are in one voice in support of this outcome that we have resolved. We are fully behind comrade Mabuyane as a Chairperson, comrade Ngcukaithobi as a Secretary; comrade Mvoko as a Deputy Chairperson and comrade Helen as DSG.”
Tension in North West
In the North West, disagreements between the ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) and the party’s Provincial List Committee (PLC) seem to be reaching boiling point.
The IPC says it has resolved to disband the PLC, and subsequently summoned its Chairperson and her Deputy to appear before a disciplinary committee. The IPC is accusing them of bringing the party into disrepute.
The PLC investigated disputes in a number of municipalities and identified 155 councillors who were on the list, but were never nominated by their respective communities. In its report, the committee found that some IPC members are implicated in the manipulation of the lists. The committee recommended that those, who were not chosen by their communities must resign.
The IPC’s coordinator, Hlomane Chauke explains, “The PLC of the North West, we know that they’ve gone rogue issuing out letters, do all of these things that are supposed to be done internally. There are ANC internal processes that we all know. The IPC has come to a conclusion that the structure must be disbanded, and comrade Lorna and comrade Joe Mboweni, we must charge for putting the party into disrepute. We have already sent them letters.”
It’s reported that the ANC owes the South African Revenue Service (SARS) more than R100 million in taxes, dating back a number of years.
Mabe says as far as the party is concerned the claims are not correct.
He says they haven’t seen any letter of demand from SARS to pay the outstanding tax within seven days.
According to Mabe the way the media reports on the matter is worrying.
“This is big fake news doing rounds out there in the public. The ANC engages with SARS from time to time as a tax collector and they’re having that kind of a relationship. So those that decide they’re going to speak on behalf of the ANC and SARS when they are neither of the institutions and the media, because these are now running around on social media, deciding to run with this as if it’s news, it’s quite worrying.”
Pule Mabe says there has been no communication from SARS regarding its tax affairs:
-Additional reporting by Patrick Dintwa and Abongile Dumako
