ANC: Decision to disband Mpumalanga, EC PECs is due threats of court action
JOHANNESBURG – The African National Congress (ANC) said the national working committee (NWC)’s decision to disband the provincial executive committees (PECs) in Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape was in the light of threats of court action following the election of new leaders.
Both Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape are ready to hold elective conferences but would have done so with expired mandates.
On Monday, Eyewitness News reported that the officials recommended the disbandment of the two provinces, which was confirmed by the outcome of the party’s NWC meeting released on Thursday.
Provincial task teams containing members from the previous PECs have already been announced.
The watershed 2012 case of Mpho Ramakatsa versus the ANC, which saw the party in the Free State left out of the Mangaung national conference, remains a shadow that haunts the party.
It’s understood threats to use it as a basis for court battles when new provincial leaders are elected has now resulted in the ANC converting PECs into task teams, so they are constitutionally mandated to take their respective branches to conference.
While some have expressed anger and claimed its purely factional, ANC NEC member Dakota Legoete said this was the ANC covering its back: “Any structure, like the PEC, that takes branches and regions to conference beyond their mandate is unconstitutional.”
Mpumalanga is currently meeting with ANC deployees discussing its state of readiness for its conference.
Artmotion S.Africa