Recently elected ANC regional secretary Jongizizwe Dlabathi says he will not be vacating his finance MMC post in Ekurhuleni municipal council.
Instead, he believes the ANC should relook at the practice of confining their regional secretaries to full-time work in the office when they could be advancing the work of the movement in government.
“It's a practice in the organisation, it's not necessarily prescriptive. The political landscape has also changed. The ANC will have to apply itself to assess whether all regional secretaries should be full time in the office or if there is still an opportunity for some of them to be deployed where necessary.”
He said the two responsibilities can coexist, charging the ANC to probe the possibility of this move without neglecting either.
“At the heart of it, my deployment must function effectively, but it must not make the organisation suffer. One must strike that balance.”
Dlabathi was elected unopposed this past weekend at the Ekurhuleni regional conference, alongside erstwhile regional convener Doctor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza as regional chairperson.
Despite the factional wrangling that often characterises ANC conferences, Dlabathi emerged unscathed.
“I did not actively campaign for the position. I allowed branches to express their preference. Personally, I think I have played my part as a coordinator to steer the work of the organisation and ensure we revive branches that are active and functional and generally to bring normality to the organisation and a sense of direction.
“On the basis of that work done within a short space of time, branches were probably convinced that given the chance of being the regional secretary, one can assist in the rebuilding of a formidable structure, take forward the issue of unity and renewal and bring back the right organisational culture.”
The party's NEC announced a mandate that all regions undergo a foundational course and bolster its community activism.
This tendency for members to rush to court is something we must discourage. Members should ventilate their issues inside and subscribe to the decision of the ANC on the matter, whether favourable or unfavourable
— Jongizizwe Dlabathi, ANC regional secretary
“The RTT [regional task team] was at the forefront of driving the implementation of the course. We started slow, but ultimately, about 103 of our branches had completed all the five modules at the start of our conference.”
However, Dlabathi insists this benchmark is a practice that the region wants toadvance, even after the elective contest.
“Our conference has resolved that this foundational course must be done on a regular basis.”
“The second prerequisite was the undertaking of community campaigns. The renewal programme of the ANC, as per the 55th national conference resolutions, said we must rebuild an outward-looking organisation, which means the ANC must be rooted on the ground, interact with communities and find solutions to issues that affect them. So branches had to undertake community campaigns.
“In our case, in Ekurhuleni, we coined it 'taking the ANC to communities' — it had various activities, voter contact, public meetings, stakeholder engagement, the Letsema campaign, where we made a difference in the lives of those who are destitute, and interactions with the churches.
The regional secretary emphasised membership management as a cornerstone for renewal. He said one of the challenges in the region is the gatekeeping of membership.
He said the “gatekeepers” admitted members according to whether they support them, not whether they support the ANC.
“We are also clear that let's bring activists and any member that subscribes to the values, principles and practices of the organisation.
He praised the RTT for working as one and helping steer the party towards a successful conference.
However, he conceded the conference did not go without a challenge.
“So this tendency for members to rush to court is something we must discourage. Members should ventilate their issues inside and subscribe to the decision of the ANC on the matter, whether favourable or unfavourable. You can't be an organisation that is a subject of courts.”
Dlabathi dismissed the eleventh-hour court challenge seeking to interdict the conference, denying the allegation that the structure was not legitimate enough to preside over the conference processes.
“These are the members whose branches convened meetings; some were successful, some were not. It was opportunistic of them to suddenly say on the eve of the conference that this RTT is not legitimate when they participated in our processes ahead of the conference. If they were genuine enough, they were supposed to not partake from the onset.”
He said he doubts the divisions will linger long into their term of office, saying one of the key resolutions of the conference was unity.
“My assessment is that the outcome is inclusive, with comrades that are fit for purpose, and there won't be any disruptions in the region. The challenge that we have is to live up to the expectations of the conference insofar as the resolutions and our declaration.”
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