ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula wants the elective conference to continue, while provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi wants it postponed.

• The ANC in the Eastern Cape is supposed to host its much-anticipated elective conference.
• The event is arguably the mostly-watched conference by the party’s national officials.
• ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula wants the conference to continue, but provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi wants it postponed.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula is widely expected to announce that the party’s elective conference will continue, despite protestations from the party’s provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi.

Mbalula’s office announced he will later on Tuesday hold a media briefing after convening an ongoing meeting with the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) in East London.

The meeting was necessitated by Ngcukayitobi’s complaint to the party’s national working committee (NWC) about a “troubling situation”, where Mbalula allegedly mishandled dispute issues stemming from the “manipulation” of branches, among other things.

In a social media video snippet posted by the Daily Dispatch newspaper ahead of a PEC meeting on Tuesday morning, Ngcukayitobi cut a forlorn figure as Mbalula sat alongside his ally and Eastern Cape chair Oscar Mabuyane and others.

A dais – and a wide space – separated them.

Regions speak

As Tuesday’s PEC meeting unfolded, a statement emerged from 10 regions’ secretaries and chairs, criticising Ngcukayitobi’s attempts to postpone the crucial elective conference.

The leaders appear to back Mbalula, who wants the party’s much-anticipated Eastern Cape elective conference to continue.

READ | Ngcukayitobi complains to Ramaphosa about Mbalula’s ‘manipulation’ before ANC EC conference

Ngcukayitobi had warned that the party opened itself up to legal risk when it forgoes its own processes.

There was a court bid to nullify the Dr WB Rubusana region’s conference, which was won by Mbalula’s ally and Buffalo City Mayor Princess Faku.

The case’s status is unclear.

There is also a freshly-launched legal bid to interdict the upcoming elective conference.

Regions’ joint statement

Titled “In defence of ANC processes against unfounded malicious attacks”, the regional leaders’ statement said the party was in solidarity with ANC internal processes, whose authority rests with Mbalula.

The statement reads:

The regional leaders, who include Mabuyane’s allies, were closing ranks to “defend the party” after Ngcukayitobi’s complaint to the NWC, echoing its late leader Oliver Tambo’s famous words: “Be vigilant, comrades. The enemy is vigilant. Beware the wedge driver! Men who creep from ear to ear, driving wedges among us; who go around creating splits and divisions. Beware the wedge driver! Watch his poisonous tongue.”

Ngcukayitobi has ambitions to become the provincial chair while Mabuyane wants a third term.

Speaking to delegates at the Amathole regional conference on Sunday, Mbalula made it clear to his comrades that the ANC would forge ahead with the conference, despite protestations from Ngcukayitobi.

“I’ve seen you circulating letters directed to the top seven. I oversee the ANC, and I report to the top seven. Don’t send a letter to everyone, it must first come to me, then I will call you. Don’t write me letters of a faction. I want to receive letters about the organisation.”

He added that if anyone had a problem, they should talk to him first.

READ MORE | ANC’s Eastern Cape conference will proceed despite disputes and SOS letter – Mbalula

Shortly after Mbalula’s remarks, Ngcukayitobi sent a letter to all troikas, usually headed by the same regional leaders, saying the invitation to the conference was “duly retracted”.

Following that letter, Mbalula wrote a letter of his own to the party’s provincial executive committee, instructing them to create an urgent, physical meeting to resolve issues that were highlighted by Ngcukayitobi.

Mbalula’s remarks were an indirect response to a complaint by Ngcukayitobi to the party’s national working committee.