STATEMENT ON OUTCOMES OF ANC WESTERN CAPE PEC-MEETING

Sunday, 09 April 2017

The Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) of the ANC met in an ordinary scheduled meeting yesterday (Saturday, 08 April 2017) to discuss and decide on a wide range of important matters.

The following issues were discussed and decisions taken:

Matters of National Concern

The PEC discussed the recent cabinet reshuffle, the responses of various National Officials, the statement following the extended National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, the developments around and the sentiments expressed at memorial services of

Isithwalandwe/Seaparankoe, Comrade Ahmed Kathrada, the downgrades by international rating agencies Standards and Poor and Fitch, the calls for the resignation of the President of the ANC as Head of State and the anti-Zuma protests on Friday, 07 April 2017, at length.

The PEC wishes to reaffirm the President’s right to make changes to the national executive but also wishes to reiterate the NWC’s stance that such reshuffling should be done in consultation with the leadership.

The PEC is of the opinion that the Integrity Commission is the best internal instrument to investigate the conduct of the President and to make recommendations in this regard. The PEC appreciate the work done by the Integrity Commission already and express our support for the Integrity Commission’s investigation and work until now.

The PEC calls for an urgent special meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC), the highest organ of the ANC between national conferences, to discuss the report of the NWC and to conclude on this matter.

The PEC is extremely concerned about the recent spate of personal attacks by NEC-members on their colleagues in the NEC as well as the attacks by cabinet ministers on their cabinet colleagues. We call on NEC-members to desist from such conduct as it does not bode well for the unity or integrity of the organisation.

We also condemn the attacks on Comrade Derek Hanekom, the convenor of NEC-deployees to the Western Cape and Comrade Barbara Hogan, the widow of the late Comrade Kathrada, in particular the racist undertones of these attacks on these former political prisoners.

The PEC again reiterated our strong condemnation of the recent praise for colonialism and its “benefits” by a leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) who is also the Premier of the Western Cape.

We fear that if such utterances are allowed and not condemned strongly, it would open the floodgates for the justification of many other horrors and atrocities of the past and this cannot be allowed.

State of the Organisation on the Western Cape

The PEC also received a preliminary pre-audit on membership and the number of branches in good-standing in preparation for the policy conference. These numbers do not include renewal of membership during the last six months.

According to the report, membership numbers have declined during the last five years and the PEC agreed to launch a campaign to address the state of membership and call on anyone who wishes to join the ANC, to get in touch with the local branch and to report any incident of gate-keeping to the PEC.

Local Governance

The PEC received a report on developments within municipalities where we are in coalitions and note the following:

1. The PEC also received a report on the coalition with the African United Front (AUF) in Bitou and are in constant engagement with the leadership of the UAF to avert a breakup of the relationship.

2. The PEC welcomes the reconstitution of the Laingsburg Municipality where we are now in coalition with the Karoo Gemeenskap Party.

3. The PEC also received a report from the Legal and Monitoring Sub-committee on a new strategy by the speakers of several municipalities where the DA are in control to subject ANC councilors to disciplinary hearings on sometimes frivolous and trumped-up charges in an attempt to frustrate and humiliate the ANC and in some cases, suspend councilors in order to create a vacancy. The PEC condemns these acts of intimidation in the strongest terms as it is a direct attack on the democratic will of the people at a local level and any interference with democratic outcomes can certainly not be in the best interest of society or our democracy. We will monitor the situation and will continue to support those councilors with legal assistance.

Discipline

The PEC is also concerned about ANC-members in the province who use social media to attack each other, promote factionalism, divide the ANC, undermine the authority of the ANC, sowing racism and political intolerance, making utterances which have the potential to bring the ANC into disrepute and promote their conference preferences when the NEC has not yet announced the succession debate open.

While the ANC does not have a social media policy, Rule 25.17 is clear on what constitutes acts of misconduct, and the ANC will not hesitate to act in such cases.

We call on all members and supporters to apply caution when engaging with each other on social media and to, instead of dividing the ANC, use these platforms to unite and strengthen the ANC.

Statement issued by Faiez Jacobs, ANC Western Cape Provincial Secretary, 9 April 2017