ANC NWC tells Mbalula to find political solution in the Eastern Cape

The ANC’s national working committee (NWC) has told its secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to find a political solution to the impasse between Eastern Cape provincial leaders Oscar Mabuyane and Lulama Ngcukayitobi, which has seen Luthuli House suffering losses in court.

The political battle between the two leaders has been the subject of litigation in which Luthuli House has suffered several losses, including being stopped from convening a provincial conference at the eleventh hour.

This week the courts ruled that the formation of a provincial task team (PTT) led by Mabuyane was unlawful.

The NWC has told Mbalula that given the losses that the party has suffered, the next step should be to find a political solution.

One of the most impactful rulings by the court was that any decision made by the PTT since its formation has been deemed null and void.

This is said to have been a subject of discussion this week with the NWC raising concerns that this means any mayoral candidates that were put forward or approved by the PTT cannot be considered. In the case of metropolitans, they cannot be interviewed by the Top Seven officials who are expected to finalise the process in the coming week.

“The courts have said that mayoral candidates which have been nominated by the PTT must actually be not recognised in terms of the court judgment ... The nomination is not only done by the PTT, it is done by the regions, it is done by members, it is done by ordinary South Africans,” said Mbalula.

“So if you go to our records, you will see that so and so is nominated by the PTT, so the PTT nomination in relation to the Eastern Cape will fall off as we interview candidates because the judge said every decision that they took is set aside,” he said.

Mbalula confirmed that the NWC had mandated him to find a political solution, which he says means uniting Mabuyane and Ngcukayitobi.

“Political solution is the mantra in any situation. So, whatever we do in the Eastern Cape will have a political solution. Political solution means we must unite ANC people and that is the mandate that we got from the NWC — that we must unite those comrades in the Eastern Cape. Even if they are a small group, we need them in the ANC,” said Mbalula.

“We are going to be engaging with everybody there and find mechanisms to deal with that, but we can’t be hamstrung from running the organisation democratically, as per the constitution of the ANC, by the courts.”

According to NWC sources, the meeting decided there must be a political solution to the impasse as the ANC was now being held at “ransom” by the court in that its “hands are tied”, and it can’t act because any action would be in violation of a court order. An appeal of the judgment could be heard later in the year, after the list of successful mayoral candidates is supposed to be released publicly for the purposes of campaigning.

“Remember the submissions had already been made by the PTT, which means that it is nullified directly by what the court has said, because remember the mayors [for metros] are not nominated by branches.

The ANC must speak candidly about the deeply troubling matter in the Eastern Cape. We are aggrieved strongly and vehemently by the recent judgment setting aside the provincial task team in the Eastern Cape.

—  Fikile Mbalula, ANC secretary-general

“We can still try to navigate it outside the PTT, but remember the nullification of the PTT places the PEC back into its original position. So the view of many comrades was that we need a political solution rather than a legal [one],” said an NWC source.

Mbalula said as he seeks a political solution, the ANC would appeal the judgment, and that reporting the judge to the Judicial Service Commission was also being considered.

“The ANC must speak candidly about the deeply troubling matter in the Eastern Cape. We are aggrieved strongly and vehemently by the recent judgment setting aside the provincial task team in the Eastern Cape,” said Mbalula.

He said the ANC regards the decision as “unfortunate” and “unlikely to be sound in law”.

“The ANC has observed a pattern in the section of the Eastern Cape bench of decisions that appear to hamstring the constitutional powers of the ANC and intrude upon the rights of our members to manage the affairs of their own organisation.

“Since March this year, we have seen our internal processes second-guessed, our conferences interdicted, and our lawful exercise of our own constitutional instruments litigated upon at every turn. This pattern calls for deep introspection and we do not exclude the possibility of elevating our treatment to a formal complaint through the proper channels provided by the law.”

“Consider what is at stake, there are 703 branches in the Eastern Cape. Every one of them wishes to go to conference, everyone one of them wishes to be set free to run its own affairs and prepare to win November 4, yet a mere handful of individuals ... has been able to bring the entire body of our membership to a standstill.

“These are the complaints that were not first brought to the ANC’s own internal dispute resolutions mechanisms as our constitution requires.”