‘ANC is not united’: Ramaphosa calls for unity as infighting continues in North West

President Cyril Ramaphosa has told ANC branches in the Ngaka Modiri Molema Region in the North West that the party will lose next year’s elections if they continue with factions, divisions and infighting.

He also criticised the political infighting among councillors in the province’s cash-strapped Ditsobotla Local Municipality, saying their divisions affected service delivery.

The strife-torn municipality is bankrupt and could not pay its employees this month.

‘ANC not united’

Ramaphosa was addressing branches after a visit by the ANC’s national working committee and the top seven of the party to North West to resolve some of the issues faced by its different regions.

“It concerns me that I am leading an organisation that is not united. We are facing the most difficult election in 2024, and the ANC is not united. A house that is divided cannot achieve much,” he said.

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“If we go to 2024 with this disunity, which I see here, I can promise you we are not going to be successful. If you want to lose the election, then you must proceed with this disunity I am seeing here.

“For as long as you are divided, we will not be able to solve our problems. You are members of the same family, but you are pulling in different directions.”

Factions in the North West

Some branch members have accused the provincial chair, Nono Maloyi, of spearheading the divisions and purging those who were contesting his faction during the provincial conference in August last year.

Some ANC members have called for the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) and the region to be dissolved. They want a court to declare the provincial conference and its decisions unlawful and invalid.

A branch member in the auditorium where branch members raised their concerns about the PEC, said if one was known to have supported the losing faction during the conference, that person was marginalised by the winning faction.

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Ramaphosa said: “This is a sickness we have in the ANC and it’s beginning to spread. After the conference, those who did not succeed are marginalised and even removed from positions. For those who won, it becomes a winner takes all.

“It does not mean those who were contesting them should be pushed aside. Even with me, after winning the conference in 2017, some ministers contested me but I never lifted a finger to remove them from Cabinet.

“Unity means you must work with those who oppose you in an election; even those you may not like.

“It does not mean in the ANC we have to work with the people we like, we have to work with people who we do not like because what unites us is the ANC,” he said.

Despite the concerns raised by the branches, no structures would be dissolved, Ramaphosa said.

The president urged everyone to rally behind the elected leadership to carry out the programmes of the ANC.