“Lulama Ngcukayitobi shivers when he sees Oscar Mabuyane; he even resorts to the courts,” was the song reverberating at the East London International Convention Centre in KuGompo in the botched would-be ANC Eastern Cape conference.
This was after a R15-million wasteful expenditure on transporting, booking accommodation and feeding delegates, hoping to elect new leaders.
The anti-climax happened when three aggrieved members, allegedly proxies of provincial secretary, Ngcukayitobi, approached the high court in KuGompo (formerly East London), crying foul play in the buildup processes.
But insiders with intimacy of the numbers have revealed that Ngcukayitobi was a victim of his own complacency, who only woke up late to realise that the ground was firmly moving with incumbent provincial chairperson, Mabuyane.
“From the more than 550 branches whose general meeting sat, Jola (Ngcukayitobi) did not have even 20 nominations.
“It was going to be a crushing defeat, so he had to do something to avoid the embarrassment,” said a senior member of the PEC (provincial executive committee).
“The man stood no chance; he lost the PEC and lost regions and branches long ago, but his friends clearly misled him.”
But those who backed Ngcukayitobi said there was massive manipulation of processes.
According to them, the court case that delivered the interim interdict halting the conference was due to hear shocking details of the level of manipulation when the applicants file responding papers.
They claim that the ANC national dispute resolutions committee (NDRC) appeals committee included in the verification report a staggering 199 branches that never convened branch general meetings (BGMs).
The court case which issued the interim interdict centres around the disputed verification report.
“Ngcuka might have been losing, which we accept, but it should not be a function of factionalised manipulation. The NDRC included almost 200 branches that never sat for BGM despite loud objections, and Ngcuka is expected to keep quiet simply because he is losing? We cannot allow that,” said a leader central to the Ngcukayitobi offensive.
Ngcukayitobi’s core insist that they will push for the conference to sit next year to have enough time to tilt the majority of the branches to support their man.
Their main battlefield is the courtroom, with four other matters coming to challenge the outcomes of the Alfred Nzo, Joe Gqabi, Amathole and Nelson Mandela Bay regional conferences.
“We have a clearly laid-out plan to defeat these people, and we will do it in stages; every wrong thing they do, we allow it, but we catch them later in court,” said one Ngcuka sympathiser, who is part of the central planning of the faction.
“I hear you guys saying Oscar (Mabuyane) is dominating, indeed, because our branches never bothered coming there because we knew that we would checkmate them in court.”
But ANC national leaders said Ngcukayitobi was now in bigger trouble than he imagined through his protestation in a letter he penned to the national officials and the interdict application where he is said to be fronting with members.
Yesterday, delegates in KuGompo were told to go back home while the ANC processes the legal quagmire that is the interim interdict, which has also resulted in another legal headache of contempt of court proceedings similar to those that sent former president Jacob
Zuma to jail in 2021.
The contempt of court was served on individual ANC leaders involved in the alleged initial defiance of the interim interdict, a case that has since been removed from the urgent roll to the normal roll at the KuGompo High Court.
But the dramatic nature of the Eastern Cape conference, especially after the notorious East London ICC of the 2017 Festival of Chairs fame, was still in full swing last night when, during Mabuyane’s address in what was now called a Cadres Forum, a “leaked” letter purporting to be a resignation letter of Ngcukayitobi circulated to would-be conference delegates.
He moved swiftly within 10 minutes to mark the letter as “FAKE”, adding fuel to the dramatic events that had unfolded since Thursday. The delegates burst out in celebration when the letter swelled their WhatsApp accounts, but their celebration was short-lived.
The development is likely to be discussed as part of discussions by ANC national officials this coming week who are scheduled to meet Eastern Cape provincial officials, including Ngcukayitobi.
- “Lulama Ngcukayitobi shivers when he sees Oscar Mabuyane; he even resorts to the courts,” was the song reverberating at the East London International Convention Centre in KuGompo in the botched would-be ANC Eastern Cape conference.
- This was after a R15-million wasteful expenditure on transporting, booking accommodation and feeding delegates, hoping to elect new leaders.
- The anti-climax happened when three aggrieved members, allegedly proxies of provincial secretary, Ngcukayitobi, approached the high court in KuGompo (formerly East London), crying foul play in the buildup processes.
- But insiders with intimacy of the numbers have revealed that Ngcukayitobi was a victim of his own complacency, who only woke up late to realise that the ground was firmly moving with incumbent provincial chairperson, Mabuyane.
- “From the more than 550 branches whose general meeting sat, Jola (Ngcukayitobi) did not have even 20 nominations.
