The Gauteng ANC has “disestablished” the Johannesburg regional structure after the expiry of its mandate.
The regional executive committee (REC), which has now been dismantled, came into office in 2021 after its elective conference. Its term of office ended earlier this month.
Like Joburg, the terms of Tshwane and Sedibeng region have also expired.
TimesLIVE Premium understands that ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula was meant to meet the Johannesburg structure last week to make the official announcement to turn them into a task team. However, the meeting was postponed.
The news was delivered by the provincial task team (PTT) on Tuesday night when a letter, which TimesLIVE Premium has seen, landed on regional secretary Sasabona Manganye’s desk.
The PTT said the decision was motivated by the end of the constitutional mandate and term of the previous REC, which lapsed on June 5.
The decision was also motivated by “the importance of the current ongoing organisational programme to unite, rebuild and renew ANC organisational structures which the previous REC was involved in and leading, as well as the importance of the current task to prepare for the regional conference due this year,” read the letter.
The conference was supposed to be held in May but was later shifted in their road map because of a communiqué from Mbalula’s office mandating all party structures at branch level to undergo a foundational course and other guidelines to be eligible for the elective contest.
TimesLIVE Premium understands that the region has its sights set on convening the conference in July, a date which may be postponed to August/September, according to insiders.
Johannesburg regional spokesperson Masilo Serekele said the move would help ensure none of the decisions taken by the Dada Morero-led structure could be overturned or challenged due to the legality of operating outside their constitutionally mandated term of office.
“Legally speaking we cannot take any decision as the REC because our mandate has lapsed. This is so that tomorrow when we execute our mandate, somebody cannot challenge us and call us an illegal structure.
“It is merely for legalities. Some regions were previously taken to court and the court found that the structure was illegal for operating beyond its term of office,” he said.
The letter from the PTT concurs with this, stating that the decision to disestablish the executive was to “prevent any leadership gap/vacuum in the region which we politically cannot afford and will be completely detrimental to the current organisational programme of uniting, rebuilding and renewing of the organisation”.
However, Serekele insists it was wrong to characterise the change as a “disbandment”, saying it was a conversion.
“Nothing has changed, we were converted into a regional task team with all the full powers we previously had of a regional executive committee,” he said.
Serekele said their key mandate was to take the region to a conference, scheduled for July 25 to 27, according to their road map.
“We will push and see how far we get in terms of preparations, closer to the time we will be able to determine whether to extend the dates or not, whether it is by a week, three weeks or a month.”
Manganye then also issued a letter to branches informing them of this change on Tuesday night.
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