ANC feeling the burn

Maybe Zuma will want to reconsider his statement that the breakaway party will be no threat to the ANC. The roots of the ANC is grounded in the Eastern Cape where Mandela and Mbeki originate and where the Xhosa people are dominant.

Zuma being a Zulu having shown Mbeki the door in such a disrespectful manner has antagonised the Xhosa people and along with Bantu Holomisa's UDM which draws good support in the province will definitely cause the ANC to lose its hold on the Eastern Cape. And coupled with its tenuous grasp in the Western Cape and perhaps Gauteng could well mean that it is about to lose some very important provinces in the next election.

If this doesn't convince you to get the message out that next year's election is THE most important in the country's history, that REAL change can come to our country, then nothing will. Please, get out, get registered and make it count.

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Lekota rebels grab ANC heartland.

Eastern Cape leaders set to leave ruling party in protest at Zuma.

The ANC is trying to avert a mass exodus of disgruntled party members as its leaders fear that the party might lose control of its largest province, the Eastern Cape.

Senior party leaders and activists have been dispatched to ANC structures across the country to urge members not to join former party national chairman Mosiuoa “Terror” Lekota’s envisaged new party. Lekota and his former deputy in the defence ministry, Mluleki George, announced yesterday that they would call a national convention later this month at which a possible new political party to challenge the ANC would be formed. George revealed that ANC branches were meeting in the Northern Cape yesterday to discuss the planned split from the ANC. The Times has established that the meeting was held in Kimberley and was attended by ANC members from the Francis Baard and Namaqua regions.

Senior party leaders are now scrambling to consolidate control of party structures. Though militants in the ANC, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party say “good riddance” to Lekota, senior party leaders yesterday seemed eager to convince him and his supporters to change their minds.

ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa said he was scheduled to meet Lekota today. “We are talking to members about the way forward and the process of reconciliation. We are not going to throw stones at Terror, we have a job of uniting the movement,” he said. ANC insiders told The Times yesterday that consultative meetings are to be convened throughout the country this weekend. Party leaders will talk to branches about the latest developments in an attempt to win the propaganda war.

Of concern to Luthuli House, insiders said, are indications that the ANC’s entire provincial executive committee in Eastern Cape will renounce its membership this weekend and join the new party.

Eastern Cape has the most signed-up ANC members in the country and the province is regarded as the ruling party’s traditional home.

But relations with Luthuli House have been shaky since the triumph of ANC president Jacob Zuma’s camp at the party’s national conference in December. The majority of Eastern Cape branches had backed Thabo Mbeki’s bid for the ANC leadership. Last month’s decision by the ANC national executive committee to recall Mbeki from the country’s presidency further angered party members in the province who felt their leader had been “humiliated” by Zuma and his backers.

A member of the provincial executive committee said anger in the Eastern Cape was so overwhelming it would be hard to stop members joining Lekota’s party. But Andile Nkuhlu, a spokesman for the committee, urged disgruntled members not to leave. He said: “We are aware of the frustrations that our members have, but we appeal to them to raise their issues within the structures of the ANC. We must channel their anger and try and win them back into the movement.” Nkuhlu said the committee would meet tomorrow: “We are aware of some ANC meetings that took place yesterday morning which were called by disgruntled members in the Nelson Mandela Bay region. But we have no details.

“People are unhappy about how the former president was recalled from office and they are asking difficult questions.” Because George is still a member of the provincial executive committee by virtue of being chairman of the ANC’s Amathole region, Nkuhlu said the provincial leadership would also have to “engage” him on plans for a new party.

Announcing his plans, Lekota slammed the Zuma-led ANC for “deviating” from principles in the Freedom Charter stipulating that all are equal before the law. “The demand for equality before the law is enshrined both in the Freedom Charter and the constitution of the republic. But recently, our leadership has been calling for a political solution to the charges against the president of the ANC. This suggests that there is law for some and not for all South Africans — a departure from one of the vital principles of our constitution,” Lekota said.