/ 17 February 2022

Eastern Cape ANC secretary slams early endorsements for party leadership positions

Lulama Ngcukayitobi
Late on Monday night, defiant youth league leaders insisted they would convene the provincial conference despite a directive by the provincial secretary, Lulama Ngcukayitobi, that it be postponed. (Twitter)

Eastern Cape ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi has lambasted those in the province who have already made proclamations on their preferred candidates for party president. This comes after the province’s chairperson Oscar Mabuyane called for Cyril Ramaphosa’s re-election as the ruling party’s president at this year’s elective conference in December.

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian, Ngcukayitobi, who is expected to contest for his current position, slammed those making what he called premature proclamations. 

“Nominations will be open at a particular time in the ANC calendar and people should use that opportunity to nominate whatever they wish. It is premature for any person in the ANC to nominate prematurely, in fact they are crossing the boundary and it is not in line with the renewal path that we have agreed to undertake,” he said. 

Ngcukayitobi emphasised that it was only the conference that would decide who became a leader in a fair objective process outlined in the party’s constitution. The Eastern Cape should follow the ANC constitution to the letter, he said, adding that branches must be allowed to determine who led them. 

In a City Press interview, Mabuyane reportedly endorsed Ramaphosa for a second term, making him the second provincial chairperson after Limpopo’s Stan Mathabatha to nominate the current ANC, and South African president.

Mathabatha was also denounced by Limpopo provincial secretary Soviet Lekganyane, who distanced himself from the statement. 

Lobbying for ANC leadership positions has been at full steam since the party celebrated its 110th birthday in Polokwane in January. 

In the Eastern Cape, Mabuyane is expected to go head-to-head with provincial treasurer Babalo Madikizela and deputy speaker Mlibo Qoboshiyane for the top post. 

Ngcukayitobi, who is expected to go up against Terris Ntuthu for the position of provincial secretary, is the preferred choice of his home region OR Tambo. Although the region elected those who favour Mabuyane to re-emerge as party chairperson, the M&G has learnt that some branch meetings have chosen to nominate Madikizela to take over the post.

At least three factions exist in the region. 

Ngukayitobi said the branch general meetings, which are set up to nominate preferred candidates for the provincial conference, were going ahead as planned except in the Dr WB Rubusana and Nelson Mandela regions, which have seen a spate of violence which has left a party member dead.

“Because we are concerned about the safety and integrity of the ANC process, we had decided to halt those [branch general meetings] for a few days and we have assigned two committees to investigate those incidents, propose remedies and understand the depth of the problem,” he said. “If it’s a selected few branches we can just isolate those branches. That is the decision about halting [the meetings] but it’s not going to be permanent.”

The current provincial executive committee (PEC) was tainted after it emerged in 2017 that some party leaders had taken the ANC to court following its elective conference which descended into violence. The provincial leaders questioned the legitimacy of those elected at what was dubbed the festival of chairs

Ngcukayitobi said the provincial leaders had been working to eliminate a recurrence of  disagreements ahead of the Eastern Cape’s March conference, but would not rule out “that certain individuals may use (the) court as an arbiter on our intra party process”.

He said his term as provincial administrator had been a mixed bag of challenges and achievements. In his first six months in office, Ngcukayitobi faced dissent in some regions who spoke against the PEC and failed to attend organisational work. 

“Through persuasion and interface we have been able to have stability in the past three years,” Ngcukayitobi said. He hailed good 2019 and 2021 election results for the Eastern Cape as a badge of honour for its leadership, saying it was the only province that enjoyed maximum support in both national and local government elections. 

“That can be attributed to the collective work of the province and all substructures. We were able to go up in voter share in Buffalo City metro unlike elsewhere on the national level. Difficulties are the fact that our term was marred by Covid-19 resulting in some element of destabilisation of ANC organisational work. We could have made a lot of progress,” he said. 

Ngcukayitobi conceded that the government was not performing well. “Its capacity to deliver services is not the one expected.”