The regional general council (RGC) of the African National Congress’s Tshwane branch faces disbandment amid “rampant violence and intimidation,” the regional chairperson Masket Mtshweni said on Sunday.
Mtshweni, who is also an ex-officio member of the ANC’s Tshwane regional executive committee (REC) said the move was “prompted by a number of unsavoury events that were taking place leading up to the regional conference to be held soon”.
“The assault on ANC members in Hammanskraal and Mamelodi, the use of Tshwane metro police to harass and even prevent ANC members in good standing to attend branch bi-ennial general meetings whilst the REC stands idly by and not acting against those implicated bear testimony to the REC’s factionalist tendencies and timidity,” he said.
Mtshweni said of the 81 branches that held branch bi-ennial general meetings, 40 of them had objected to the provincial and national structures of the ANC.
It was against this backdrop “that the RGC members resolved to call for the disbandment of the REC”, he said.
The RGC also resolved that the regional conference should be postponed indefinitely so that objections could be dealt with by the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), said Mtshweni.
He said the registration of delegates for the regional conference would be discontinued.
“It is ANC Tshwane members’ belief that the steps being taken will assist in fostering unity within the ranks of the ANC and ensure that the atmosphere leading to the regional conference will be devoid of violence, harassment and rigging.”