Jessie Duarte asked to intervene in regional conference dispute

Disgruntled ANC members in the Western Cape have called on the party’s deputy secretary-general‚ Jessie Duarte‚ to intervene in a bid to overturn the Cape Metro conference results.

The Cape Metro‚ known as the Dullar Omar region‚ is the biggest region in the Western Cape and holds a lot of sway over who becomes provincial leader. Last weekend‚ the region held its elective conference‚ where Xolani Sotashe was re-elected regional chairman.

The conference was a lead-up to a provincial general council‚ which is expected to elect a provincial chairman to replace Marius Fransman. Fransman was fired from the party last year following allegations of sexual harassment.

In a letter directed to Duarte as head of the ANC national dispute resolution committee‚ national officials and provincial secretary Faize Jacobs‚ the group argues that the regional conference was not properly constituted. It has also threatened the party with court action to reverse the outcome.

It says the region did not meet the required 70% threshold of branches to properly constitute a conference because some branches did not hold legal branch general meetings to elect delegates.

Jacobs confirmed he had received a copy of the letter to Duarte‚ saying the party was working on addressing the matter.

“We have asked the dispute committee and the national team to help respond to some of these issues [that were raised]‚” said Jacobs.

He said some had been raised before the conference.

“Some of these [complaints] had rulings on them ...[but] some branches were not happy with the outcome of these rulings and now they are having another bite on it‚” said Jacobs‚ adding that the party would provide answers to the disgruntled group.

ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe could not immediately be reached for comment.

One of the complainants‚ Ndithini Tyhido‚ said they wanted Duarte and the dispute resolution committee to deal with the matter because it was provincial leaders who presided over the regional conference and overruled their disputes.

Sotashe could not be reached for comment‚ but on Thursday morning he posted a statement on his Facebook page saying he was aware of black business people who were behind the destabilisation of the ANC in the Western Cape.

His comment is understood to be referring to Tyhido‚ who is also a member of the Khayelitsha Development Forum‚ a business grouping in Khayelitsha township.

“We know of meetings you held to plot the court action. In your wicked mind you think that you can convince court to overturn a democratic outcome where all of us participated. We know that you are beneficiaries of DA government in the Western Cape‚” wrote Sotashe.