ANC to discuss turbulent week
2010-03-12 14:06
Johannesburg - The ANC's national leadership kicks off a meeting on Friday, after a tumultuous week which saw a spokesperson suspended, another arrested for drunken driving and its president under fire for failing to declare his financial interests.
An outline of the programme for the weekend-long meeting in Ekurhuleni will be announced later on Friday, said spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi.
National executive committee member and national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu was arrested in Cape Town on Thursday morning for alleged drunken driving.
He was allegedly found to be more than three times over the legal limit.
Zuma assets
Spokesperson Brian Sokutu faces disciplinary action after talking to a reporter without following protocol on President Jacob Zuma's failure to declare his assets within the prescribed time frame.
Zuma was supposed to have declared them within 60 days of taking office last May, but according to reports, some in the presidency felt he did not have to submit a declaration.
Zuma's lawyer Michael Hulley on Wednesday submitted a declaration of his interests.
The party was this week also seeking to clarify damaging comments made against former president Nelson Mandela by his ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
She expressed her disappointment in the Nobel Laureate, saying he had betrayed blacks, during an interview with the UK-based London Evening Standard newspaper.
Public fallout with Cosatu
It comes after the ANC and its alliance partner, the SA Communist Party, on Thursday held bilateral talks on a booing incident in December - in which parties agreed that there would be no further "personalised public attacks" on one another.
It also follows a public fallout between the party and its other ally, the Congress of SA Trade Unions.
This, despite resolutions taken at a leadership lekgotla in January where party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the NEC would "initiate a broad discussion on the history, law and current tasks of the alliance and its constituent past as a matter of urgency.
"We must manage the contradictions inherent to the alliance in a manner that builds the unity of purpose, understanding of distinct roles and programmes of each component," he said.
At the time, he called on alliance members to "respect each other's organisational integrity, enforce discipline, avoid public spats and labelling and resolve problems within bilateral and other alliance forums."
- SAPA