Peter Dickson
The African National Congress in the Eastern Cape and its former ally, the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco), are now officially locked in a bitter power struggle for control of the new Nelson Mandela metropole. Last weekend, in outright defiance of the ANC, Sanco’s leaders from Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch – the new Nelson Mandela metropole – signed a formal “record of understanding” with independent candidates. Sanco and the independents, many of whom have defected from the ANC, agreed to work together and coordinate their election campaigns together. Sanco area representative Mike Tofile said they also discussed a “governance partnership”, and told reporters that all efforts to “clear misunderstandings” with the ANC had failed “dismally”. Evidence on the ground suggests that while the Sanco and independent candidates have a strong following in Uitenhage, they are likely to be swamped by the ANC elsewhere in the metropole. Before 3 000 mourners in East London on the same day, Deputy President Jacob Zuma used the open-air funeral service for presidential aide Parks Mankahlana to roast defectors. With a massive party banner featuring President Thabo Mbeki dominating the stage, and Mankahlana’s coffin draped in an ANC flag under a canopy in front of the platform, Zuma criticised ANC members who had defected or become independents. Sanco’s defiance follows a decision by its powerful Eastern Cape branch last month to back independent candidates against the ruling party in December’s municipal elections.
Reasons cited were the ANC’s “failure” to deliver on housing and employment promises in the impoverished Eastern Cape after the last two general elections, and “delaying tactics” that left scant room for Sanco members on the ANC’s final provincial candidates list for next month’s local poll.
The ANC last week expelled 42 Port Elizabeth and East London members who had refused to deregister as independent candidates. A week earlier, also under threat of ANC expulsion, 27 Sanco candidates in Umtata and Lusikisiki joined the African Christian Democratic Party.