The Eastern Cape ANC has clamped down on possible defections to the Congress of the People (Cope) by asking scores of branch leaders to pledge loyalty to the party.
Eastern Cape provincial secretary Siphato Handi confirmed that the party has written letters to members asking them to clarify where they stand on Cope.
Handi insisted this served the interests of those receiving the letters by removing the cloud of suspicion over them. The party has written to 55 individuals, mostly at branch level.
Handi denied initial reports that the letters were aimed at provincial ministers and members of the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC). The irony is that Luthuli House asked Handi to write the letters, while the ANC Youth League suspects him of being a closet Cope member.
Fearing that they support Cope, the league has asked Handi and the rest of the PEC to resign. The Eastern Cape is Cope’s strongest base.
Handi said: ”These letters are meant to enable people to deal with the allegations and clear themselves before the threat of discipline is invoked. In the Eastern Cape we have a problem of allegations, most of them unfair, being circulated about people.
”All the letters say is: ‘There are allegations that you are furthering the interests of another party (not necessarily Shikota), which is not allowed in the ANC. Can you tell us what’s happening?’ The people then have an opportunity to respond to the allegations, which are very dangerous to their reputations.”
But the Youth League’s provincial secretary, Ayanda Mathithi, asked: ”How do you send a criminal to arrest a criminal? This is the question the ANC must answer.”
Mathithi said Handi had not written to a number of mayors secretly working for Cope and that the ANC Women’s League and Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans’ Association also supported the disbanding of the PEC.
”We believe that if you get rid of the PEC and institute a task team the ANC will start implementing our party programme. Otherwise the programme will stand still and these people will catch us off guard when they unleash their Cope plan,” he said, adding that a provincial general council was planned to work for the PEC’s dissolution.
Rumours that similar letters have been sent out in the North West could not be confirmed.
Two weeks ago ANC president Jacob Zuma was reported saying that the national executive committee of his party had been infiltrated by Cope sympathisers.
Zuma expressed frustration that senior ANC leaders who remained in the NEC sided with the breakaway movement. According to City Press, he said that it was difficult to devise an effective counter-strategy.
”Your hands are tied,” he said. ”You can’t say ‘we suspect you, so go away’. They will call that a witch-hunt.”