ANC focuses on W Cape 'crisis'

2008-12-18 22:28

Johannesburg - The ANC is abandoning pending court actions to focus its resources on the "disaster" it faces in the Western Cape, secretary general Gwede Mantashe announced on Thursday.

Speaking after the ANC's final NEC meeting of the year in Kempton Park, Mantashe said the party was withdrawing its Constitutional Court action over the decision to exclude the ANC from Western Cape by-elections last week because candidates registered late.

It was also withdrawing its appeal against the high court ruling allowing the newly-formed Congress of the People to use the name, but maintains that the 1955 meeting after which its is named, and at which the Freedom Charter was adopted, remains a fundamental part of ANC history.

Strengthen leadership

Describing the ANC's performance in the December 10 by-elections in the Western Cape as "pathetic", Mantashe said the party obtained only 11% of the vote where it had managed to field candidates.

On the verge of collapse, the party's provincial structures needed "urgent intervention".

The ANC, which earlier this year removed Ebrahim Rasool as Western Cape premier, had decided it would not disband the provincial executive committee, as this could lead to the "total collapse" of the ANC in the area.

Instead, the NEC would send in a team of senior cadres to "strengthen" the leadership in the province, said Mantashe, but could not immediately provide their names and said these would be circulated.

This team would have total political oversight of the province, he said, adding that the provincial executive would not be able to take political decisions without the approval of the NEC team.

The arrangement would be reconsidered after next year's general election.

"[It was] decided to rescue the little that is left there [the Western Cape] and build on it."

Unless the ANC got its act together in the Western Cape, it would lose a province which was not "hostile" to the party.

Comprehensive strategy

It had to do something to convert that lack of hostility into positivity. "That is what we are doing," Mantashe said.

He said the NEC team's comprehensive strategy for the Western Cape would include the targeting of the Coloured community and other minority communities alongside the ANC's historical base in the area.

It would ensure the involvement of people who were active in the ANC tripartite alliance partner, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and other sectors,

The ANC was "determined" to win the province, said Mantashe.

The focus of campaigning in the Western Cape would be on eradicating poverty - which remained the ANC's major national objective.

Other priorities likely to be included in the ANC's manifesto, to be launched in East London on January 10 are: job creation, the fight against crime, improving health care services, education, development of rural infrastructure and agricultural reform.

- SAPA