The big split: Tensions simmer in rebel camp

The new political formation planned by former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota is off to a rocky start with supporters at odds over whether to stay and fight from within the ANC.

The Mail & Guardian understands that disgruntled members who oppose a breakaway party want to convince ANC members to pass a motion of no-confidence in ANC president Jacob Zuma, paving the way for a special party conference to elect new leaders.

Many senior leaders do not want to be seen challenging the Zuma-led executive as this would compromise their political careers and business opportunities.

The rival tendency insists that a new party is needed to highlight the ANC’s faults and convince voters that the party has fundamentally moved away from the party they support.

‘The aim is to protect current ANC policies and the country’s Constitution from being tampered with,” an organiser said.

Conflicting perspectives began emerging after the dramatic announcement by Lekota and other leaders on Wednesday that they are ready to head a new party to challenge the ANC in next year’s elections.

Lekota said that if he did not receive an answer to his open letter to the ANC leadership last week, in which he attacked the party’s betrayal of its founding principles, he would convene a national convention to decide on whether to launch a new formation.

ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa invited him to meet the leadership at Luthuli House on Thursday, but he did not make an appearance.

Although they would not come out publicly, the M&G was told that some Cabinet ministers and ANC national executive committee (NEC) members are part of the plan to form a new party.

The ANC is divided on how to deal with the breakaway group, with Phosa insisting on Wednesday that the ANC leadership will engage with Lekota, while Zuma warned the rebels to remember there are ‘limits” to what they can do.

The ANC has called its provincial chairs to Luthuli House on Monday to discuss how to deal with the use of ANC structures, such as branch meetings, to organise for the new movement.

The Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Northern Cape are the main arenas of potential conflict and rebel meetings have been held in those provinces to mobilise ANC members.

Luthuli House has asked provincial leaders to meet disaffected elements. Provincial leaders in the Eastern Cape are scrambling to ensure that the new movement planned by provincial executive member Mluleki George does not gain further ground.

George recently resigned as deputy defence minister following the recall of former president Thabo Mbeki by the ANC.

Eastern Cape ANC chairperson Stone Sizani said ANC members will help the rebels pack if they want to leave, adding that George has effectively ‘fired himself” from the provincial leadership.

‘I doubt if he will come to the PEC [provincial executive committee meeting scheduled for Friday]; he has fired himself by making those statements [at this week’s media conference].”

Sizani said the province is seen as the breeding ground for the new party ‘because the instigator lives here”.

‘The members are irritated [by George’s statements]; the majority are asking us to take action. They are saying the sooner they leave, the better. This is not good for discipline: if junior members do things like this, they get disciplined.”

According to Sizani, George wants to ensure when he walks away, he takes with him significant support.

‘We know what is happening on the ground; members are telling us where and who they [rebel members and leaders] are meeting.”

Eastern Cape PEC spokesperson Andile Nkuhlu confirmed reports of meetings being held in the Nelson Mandela Bay region, which includes Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape’s largest region, Amathole, which includes East London and Bhisho.

‘We can’t deny it; there is a deep sense of anger in the province. We know there are initiatives in these regions and the majority of branches are meeting in defiance of the leadership seeking new hope.

‘There is a special meeting planned where there will be a plenary and we have to take stock of the problems people have.”

Nkuhlu said there are plans for a series of meetings starting on Friday in the province to deal with the possibility of new formations.

The Eastern Cape leadership is worried by the fact that George is deeply rooted in ANC structures, where he serves as the Amathole regional chair.

‘He comes with lots of credibility in the structures on the ground, he is a seasoned campaigner,” said Nkuhlu.

The ANC plans to move quickly to ensure that the support for the new movement does not grow.

‘This is not just a few people, it is much more than that,” said Nkuhlu. ‘If the reports in regions and subregions are anything to go by, the plans to join a new movement are going ahead.”

Provincial secretary Siphato Handi said that if Zuma had stuck to his plans to visit the Eastern Cape last weekend, the anger might have subsided.

‘Everything was ready; we’d convened the branches and they voiced their anger and disappointment. He cancelled at the 11th hour.”

Zuma was due to address members in Mthatha and Port Elizabeth, but cancelled at the last minute.

A senior ANC MP told the M&G that the new party would take off because members felt there is a growing need ‘for the emergence of the real ANC that they know”.

‘There is an anarchist tendency that has overtaken the movement. There are attempts to change policies; some want to change Polokwane policies. Cosatu’s opposition to inflation targeting was rejected in Polokwane, but now people are raising it again.”

A former Luthuli House official closely aligned to Mbeki said Lekota’s media conference is an attempt to ‘show the intensity of the discontentment to the ANC”.

‘It is about making a statement and feeling comfortable again with yourself and your conscience, for the first time in a long time.”

Said ousted Mbulelo Ncedana, suspended regional secretary of the Western Cape’s Dullah Omar region: ‘Things that Terror said yesterday we share. We are not excluding the possibility of Terror attending, but we have no confirmation that he will attend.”

Commenting on a Western Cape meeting planned for the weekend, he said: ‘This is not a launch of the new party; this is a provincial branch meeting — branches that were excluded from the provincial conference. We are all meeting. We are talking to branches in other provinces.”

In the Northern Cape meetings were held by supporters of former provincial secretary Neville Mompati to ‘welcome” Lekota’s announcement.

Lekota’s announcement has generated significant interest among other groups which were planning to challenge the ANC at next year’s election.

Mbuyisi Mgibisa, spokesperson for a group of disgruntled ANC leaders in the Eastern Cape, said the group would hold a meeting on Friday in the province to discuss the possibility of forming one strong party.

‘There is a feeling that we might share the same views as Lekota and George,” said Mgibisa.

There would also be other meetings by different structures intending to join the new party throughout the country at the weekend, George told the M&G. ‘You will see on the weekend, all of them coming out,” he promised.

Youth League president Julius Malema warned on Thursday that the league will be waiting for them.
‘We called on ANCYL structures to be on the alert. Counter-revolutionary forces are moving to destroy the revolution. They will find us ready, not to speak to them, but to dismiss them. Defenders of the revolution are on the alert to defend the revolution.”

Additional reporting by Pearlie Joubert and Nosimilo Ndlovu