'Premier league' heavily criticised

08 October 2015 - 02:19 By Nathi Olifant

Factionalism in the ANC - manifested in the common usage of terms such as "premier league" and "tenderpreneurs" - has been heavily criticised by the party's KwaZulu-Natal region. The so-called "premier league" refers to the three ANC premiers of Mpumalanga, the Free State and North West. The three are said to be a powerful lobby group that seeks to determine the leadership course of the ruling party.Emerging from its provincial general council meeting over the weekend, the ANC said yesterday that such concepts had created divisions ahead of the national general council meeting.ANC provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said such terms were uncalled for and sought to factionalise the party."We only have the Women's League, Youth League and Veterans League. No structure called the premier league was ever launched by the ANC or its NEC."ANC provincial chairman Senzo Mchunu took a swipe at the "premier league," warning delegates against being side-tracked by self-serving projects disguised as genuine campaigns.Mchunu gave the example of the 2010 nationalisation of mines campaign led by former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema - which was widely interpreted as the precursor to the launch of an anti-Zuma plan."When we had a national general council here in KZN, there was a storm that came that was couched as being about policy ... but you could tell it was about something else," Mchunu said."If a person believes there is factionalism in the organisation, such a person must engage relevant structures to expose factionalism than employ tendencies of labelling and caricaturing others," Zikalala added.On tenderpreneurs, he said: "The invention of concepts of tenderpreneurs undermines the theory of the organisation and has the potential of undermining the programme of economic transformation."..

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