Rasool, Ozinsky hearing delayed

2010-01-25 19:18

Cape Town - An ANC disciplinary hearing against former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool and Max Ozinsky, the party's chief whip in the province, was postponed indefinitely on Monday.

"The case against Mr Ozinsky was postponed by request of the ANC," said Vusi Mdala, a spokesperson for the disciplinary committee.

"Mr Rasoool made his own request for the case to be postponed."

Rasool and Ozinsky are accused of bringing the ANC into disrepute.

The two have been at odds for years and their hostility spilled into the open after Ozinsky told a newspaper Rasool had forged improper relations with reporters during his stint as premier.

Rasool and Ozinsky were temporarily suspended from the party late last year pending the outcome of the disciplinary process.

Public squabbling

Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, who heads the provincial ANC task team, said this was a last resort after they ignored warnings not to continue squabbling in public.

An ANC veteran in the province who did not want to be named warned that the disciplinary process carried the risk of deepening divisions within party structures in the province.

"I think it is rather unnecessary. In the past these things have created more division than anything else," he said.

"I would strive for a conciliatory outcome allowing everybody to work together."

The ANC believes it lost the province to the Democratic Alliance last April because of bitter infighting and poor organisation.

In July, it suspended the provincial executive headed by Mcebisi Skwatsha and appointed the task team headed by Mdladlana as an interim leadership structure.
 

- SAPA