The African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape on Sunday passed a resolution encouraging Thabo Mbeki to stand for a third term as party leader.
The resolution came at the provincial ANC’s three-yearly conference in Alice, a few hours after Mbeki loyalist Stone Sizani was named as the new provincial chairperson.
It was proposed by the Amathole region, headed by Deputy Defence Minister Mluleki George, and the Nelson Mandela metro region, which Sizani chairs.
The resolution was phrased along the lines that the conference resolved that Mbeki should serve a third term. But other regions objected that the issue had been discussed only by the two proposing regions, and that branches in other areas should be given an opportunity to go through a democratic nomination process. The resolution was then amended.
The final form encouraged Mbeki to make himself available should he be nominated for the position.
The post comes up for discussion at the ANC’s national conference at the end of 2007.
The Eastern Cape ANC forms the largest provincial bloc of votes at the national conference.
Mbeki has already indicated he is not interested in standing for a third term as head of state, a move which would require a constitutional amendment, but has not committed himself one way or the other on the leadership of the party.
The Eastern Cape conference also threw its weight behind a resolution from the provincial youth league condemning Saturday’s disruption of Mbeki’s address at the reburial of struggle stalwart Moses Mabhida in KwaZulu-Natal.
Unlike its counterparts in other provinces, the Eastern Cape youth league is not backing ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, who had to intervene when the noise became too disruptive.
The resolution as presented by the league described those involved in the disruption as a ”sponsored unruly crowd”.
”We believe these are not sporadic acts of lunatics but well orchestrated attempts to demean … the stature and dignity of the Presidency of the country and that of the ANC,” the resolution said.
It called on the KwaZulu-Natal ANC to act decisively against any member of the organisation found to have been involved.
Meanwhile the South African Broadcasting Corporation news quoted Mbeki saying that the funeral of struggle veteran Moses Mabhida was no place for people to air grievances.
”Whatever their grievances … that was not the place to express those grievances, but of course time will tell whether in fact we were dealing with people who are genuine members of the progressive movement or just dealing with people who are wearing our t-shirts,” he told an SACP gathering in Polokwane on Sunday.
ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe told journalists at the party’s Eastern Cape conference in Alice that those responsible would be barred from ever attending another ANC meeting if they could be identified. – Sapa