Cape Town - Political activists allied to the ANC in Cape Town have welcomed the interim provincial committee’s (IPC) dissolution of the Dullah Omar regional executive committee (REC) and said it was the right decision for unity and renewal in the party.
Dullah Omar is the party’s biggest region in the Western Cape.
Announcing the decision, ANC Western Cape convener Lerumo Kalako said that the IPC working committee had assessed the region and found that “in its current state, it would not meet the deadline for holding a regional conference.”
Kalako said there had been no reason to wait for the regional conference to take place before the dissolution.
He said the ANC had already decided in December that regions that “had not improved and shown that they were prepared for regional conferences in March or April, would be dissolved.”
He said all other branches appeared ready and it was only the Dullah Omar one which was still far behind in its preparations.
He said he did not think the disbandment of the leadership would destabilise the party as the ANC in the province prepares for regional and provincial conferences expected by the end of the next month.
Earlier this month the party’s national executive committee (NEC) urged branches to hold their provincial conferences by March.
The NEC said this was so that by the time of the mid-year policy conference scheduled for June or July, the entire party should have concluded all its regional, provincial conferences and provincial general councils.
The ANC’s 55th national conference to elect new party leaders is scheduled for December.
From Dullah Omar, ANC activist Nzulu Gona said the decision to dissolve the leadership should be celebrated as it reinforces the programme of the renewal of the ANC.
Gona, who was on the party’s PR list for Cape Town at the last local government election, said under the disbanded leadership, the party’s fortunes had seen a decline.
SA Communist Party in the Brian Bunting District and Cape metro spokesperson Monde Nqulwana said the decision was long overdue and it would enable the ANC in the province and region to renew and rebuild.
“Not only was the ANC in the region dysfunctional, it also lacked the commitment and political will to build the alliance relations under the agreed principles of a reconfigured alliance,” Nqulwana said.