Africa-Press – South-Africa. ANC leaders in Ekurhuleni are at loggerheads over the party’s co-governing agreement with the EFF in the metro, with one regional leader questioning the value of the coalition.
ANC acting regional chairperson Jongizizwe Dlabathi wrote to the party’s provincial office asking them to reassess its coalition with the EFF in the region, stating that it lacked any strategic value.
The ANC and the EFF joined sides to unseat the DA in Ekurhuleni and worked together to elect Sivuyile Ngodwana, an African Independent Congress (AIC) councillor as mayor.
While the ANC and the EFF have a power-sharing agreement, councillors from both parties have accused each other of corruption.
Dlabathi’s letter exposed the tension between the ANC and the EFF and threatened the stability of the coalition government in Ekurhuleni.
In the letter, seen by News24, Dlabathi wrote: “They [the EFF] have been consistent in their resolve to remove the ANC from power. Equally, they have been consistent in attacking the political head of the ANC, having declared that their next assignment is to remove the current president of our movement.”
He added that the ANC was harming itself by maintaining its arrangement with the EFF.
“It would be cowardly of me to mute and embrace an arrangement that I consider … to be a process that will systematically liquidate the ANC from power. In its current form, the ANC–EFF arrangement in Ekurhuleni has no strategic value,” he said.
Unbothered by these events, EFF leader Julius Malema said his councillors in the municipality were intolerant of corruption and would continue to “suffocate the ANC”.
Speaking to News24, he said:
He added, “If they take out the EFF in Ekurhuleni, so be it. They refuse to be part of corruption. Jongizizwe, in that letter, says this relationship is going to destroy the ANC because the EFF has not given them any space, so it has taught them a lesson.”
Aggrieved by the content of Dlabathi’s letter, ANC’s acting regional secretary Moipone Mhlongo said the party would meet on Friday to address the matter internally and would share the outcome of the meeting with the public in due course.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Mhlongo said she had discovered the existence of Dlabathi’s letter via social media, and accused Dlabathi of sowing division.
“The ANC in Ekurhuleni strongly condemns any attempts to undermine the principles of collective leadership and democratic centralism within our organisation. The regional executive committee (REC) is dismayed by these unfortunate utterances. It takes these matters seriously and is deeply concerned about the behaviour of certain members who act outside the collective wisdom of organisational structures, established principles, and practices of the ANC.
“The leadership, entrusted with safeguarding the value system of the ANC, cannot be the first ones to grossly violate and trample on it by acting as individuals,” Mhlongo stated.
News24 previously reported that two weeks after forming an alliance with the red berets in the Metro, Dlabathi accused the EFF of using state resources for political campaigning during its clean-up programmes.
During that period, the EFF had pointed fingers at the ANC for being corrupt.
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