Two of the Eastern Cape’s biggest ANC regions, Nelson Mandela (Port Elizabeth) and OR Tambo (Umtata), are starkly divided over whether Thabo Mbeki should continue leading the party.
Senior ANC members in the province have expressed ”serious concern” over their diaÂÂmetrical opposition, saying ”they are dividing the provincial ANC into two main camps linked to Jacob Zuma and Mbeki”.
The divisions have emerged just two months before the ANC’s decisive provincial conference, scheduled for November 30.
At its regional pow-wow last month, the Mandela region decided to lobby other ANC regions in the province and beyond to endorse Mbeki’s re-election as ANC president at the party’s national conference next year.
It is understood that the province’s second-largest region, Amathole, has followed suit. Also taking this line are the Alfred Nzo and Cacadu regions.
However, the OR Tambo region came out against a third term for Mbeki, as well as calling for his powers to appoint provincial premiers to be revoked at the ANC national policy conference. Also opposed to a further term for Mbeki are the Chris Hani and Ukhahlamba regions.
The president was given the power to appoint premiers, departmental directors general and mayors of major municipalities at the 1997 Mafikeng conference.
Notorious for its political infighting and leadership paralysis, the Eastern Cape ANC is trying to reassert itself as a ”political powerhouse” within the party.
In August, provincial leaders urged Mbeki to intervene in the political crisis facing the Eastern Cape ANC, which had paralysed service delivery in some municipalities.
A party source said provincial ANC leaders were trying to break with ”an ANC past characterised by deep divisions and factionalism”. However, the Mbeki-Zuma succession battle was ”threatening to entrench more divisions and factions” in the troubled provincial party.
Siyakholwa Mlamli, OR Tambo secretary, confirmed that the region had agreed that Mbeki’s powers to appoint premiers should be revoked.
”A scenario where the president appoints a premier who is not the provincial chairperson of the ANC creates two centres of power, which are a source of division, factionalism and political infighting,” Mlamli said.
However, Vuyo Toto, Nelson Mandela secretary, dismissed the argument as ”false”.
”The ANC is a political centre of power and the government is the ANC’s site of struggle, which must be used by the ANC to advance its tasks of the national democratic ÂÂrevolution,” he said.
The Mail & Guardian understands that some provincial executive committee members are unhappy at the Mandela region’s decision to ”push ahead” in engaging other regions to back Mbeki’s re-election. In the interests of party unity, the provincial executive committee wanted the provincial conference to resolve that neither Mbeki nor Zuma should consider running for the party presidency.
The split over Mbeki exactly replicates the rift over who should lead the Eastern Cape ANC, due to be decided at next month’s provincial conference. The Mandela, Amathole, Alfred Nzo and Cacadu ANC bloc all support Stone Sizani, former provincial education minister, for the provincial ANC chairmanship vacated by Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile.
Backing Mcebisi Jonas, former Eastern Cape Development Corporation CEO, for the chair are the OR Tambo, Chris Hani and Ukhahlamba regions.