Branches march to ANC Free State Provincial offices

Politics /07 May 2022, 07:33am/ Thabiso Ndoba

Members of the ANC during their march to Provincial offices: image supplied

Bloemfontein: The branches of African National Congress (ANC) in Mangaung region marched to the provincial head office of the ANC in Bloemfontein, Free State on Friday 06 May. The branches marched outside the provincial offices of the ANC, Kaizer Sebothelo, to submit their memorandum of demands.

Their grievances amongst many includes the challenges faced by the structures in Mangaung, unjustified stance taken by the IPWC to reconstitute the branches including those in good standing and to also declare that the reconstitution of branches would be illegal and unlawful.

“We want to remind the IPC that their mandate was to unite and renew the ANC in the Province, and to take us to the Conference. Ten months has passed without any positive results. You have established the IRC which consists of 48 appointed members, of which that in itself it’s unconstitutional. We also want to bring to your attention that such structure has divided the organization further.”

The memorandum includes the following demands:

·         Disbandment of the IPC following its lapsed mandate.

·         Dissolve the entire IPC and its factional committee, especially the Governance and Legislature.

·         The regional and provincial conferences take place now.

·         The President to cease changing the decisions of the National Executive Committee when addressing the branches in Mangaung.

·         To dissolve the bloated IRC following their lapsed time of reference and have only achieved one thing which is dividing the members and branches through factionalism under Cde Dukwana.

·         Request the MEC of COGTA, Mxolisi Dukwana, to step down after accepting bribe from the GUPTAS

·       Immediate Step-Down of Mxolisi as he manipulated the Province to Province ANC IEC list to make room for himself from Number 29 to Number 20, to fire Cde Mojalefa Buti and take over the place of Cde Thandi Reachable, who was next on the list,

They further said, “ We have observed that 2 former ANC Presidents, Cde Mbeki and Cde Motlante, visited the Free State and our Mangaung Region in particular to address renewal and unity, and none of the branches were addressed or invited by them. Was that a factional invite, as all BECs/Branches were excluded, in preparation for the conference?”

The branches represented at the march expressed their disappointments in the leadership of the Free State Premier, Sisi Ntombela, and the way she single handlely handled the issues of both the Provincial and National intervention in Mangaung.

“The provincial government led by the Premier is owing the Metropolitan Municipality more than R2 billion for services rendered by the municipality. She has failed the residents of Mangaung and without even approaching both the residents and the structures of the movement. She has demonstrated that she has no capacity to run the Provincial government and things have collapsed under her leadership in the Province, since she became the Premier.”

They concluded by calling for the immediate resignation of the Premier. The leadership of the ANC has until Tuesday, 10 May 2022, to respond to the memorandum and failure to do so the branches will approach the courts.

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