Step down or be recalled‚ ANC in North West warns deputy speaker

The ANC in North West has threatened to fire deputy speaker in the provincial legislature Jane Manganye if she fails to heed calls by party bosses to step down.

Provincial secretary Dakota Legoete sent Manganye a letter this week instructing her to step down by 11am on Wednesday or “leave us with no option to recall you in line with [the] organisation’s decision”.

In the letter dated December 5‚ Dakota reveals that Manganye’s “insolence and disrespect for the organisational directives [sic]” has driven the party to issue the ultimatum.

However‚ Manganye is defiant‚ telling TimesLIVE that she expects to meet with provincial ANC chairperson Supra Mahumapelo to receive an explanation about the reasons behind calls for her removal.

But she claimed she was being hounded out of her job because she had repeatedly called on President Jacob Zuma to step down as well as her staunch support for ANC presidential candidate Cyril Ramaphosa.

Branches in North West last week overwhelmingly nominated another candidate‚ Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma‚ for the party presidency by 291 nominations to Ramaphosa’s 45 nods but Manganye insists she will campaign for Ramaphosa just as others campaign for Dlamini-Zuma.

“While they campaign for their preferred candidate‚ I will also be in North West campaigning for my preferred candidate. I worked with Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa in the mines in the former Bophuthatswana. I know his strengths. My choice of candidate is not an indication that I am undermining women. I just don’t feel now is the time. What’s the point of having a deputy president in the organisation when he can’t ascend to become the president? I am also in favour of electing a female deputy president‚” said Manganye.

Manganye‚ a former ANC women’s league provincial chairperson‚ said the relationship between her and the Mahumapelo-led ANC provincial leadership turned sour as soon as she was elected to the position in 2013.

Provincial party bosses had expected her to campaign for Bathabile Dlamini to become the league’s president in the run-up to the 2014 conference but she supported then incumbent Angie Motshekga.

She was subsequently stripped of her position.

She claimed to have received a call from Dakota in June‚ while in hospital‚ informing her that the provincial leadership expected her to resign her position as deputy speaker.

“He told me that they wanted their position back. I asked them what position and he said that of deputy speaker. They didn’t have the decency to wait for me to leave the hospital. I know they have powers but they have not engaged me. I will wait for them. If they don’t explain‚ I will appeal. It is un-ANC to recall people without providing an explanation‚” said Manganye.