Mabuza to lead team to promote unity in ANC North West

The governing ANC will dispatch a rapid response team to the North West to meet with the party’s opposing factions in the province.

The governing party’s spokesperson Zizi Kodwa told the Sowetan that the team was established on Monday and would be led by party and state Deputy President David Mabuza.

Kodwa told the publication that Mabuza and the rapid response team would head to the North West province this weekend to meet with Supra Mahumapelo and the provincial executive committee (PEC) as well as the provincial task team (PTT) in the province.

This comes after the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday found that the decision by the governing ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) to disband the party’s North West provincial executive committee (PEC), which was chaired by Mahumapelo, was procedurally unfair and a breach of the party’s constitution and in violation of the “applicant’s section 19 constitutional rights”.

The court further ruled that Mahumapelo and the disbanded PEC he chaired should be reinstated within two days of the ruling and that leaving the PTT in place, as the governing party had contended, would constitute preserving an illegal state of affairs.

READ MORE: Court rules Supra Mahumapelo to be reinstated within two days of ruling

Kodwa told the publication that immediate answers were needed and that Mabuza’s team should have the powers to make decisions.

The ANC spokesperson was quoted as saying that the party in the province could not achieve unity through court judgments, adding, however, that the organisation abides by the country’s constitution.

Court judgments must be used to promote unity within the ANC, Kodwa said, and that neither of the factions in the North West should feel as if they had attained victory.

The ANC on Wednesday said it would be appealing the judgment by the High Court in Johannesburg and try to reinstate the North West provincial executive committee PEC.

READ MORE: ANC to appeal court judgment on ANC North West PEC

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)