The ANC Gauteng provincial task team has adopted a cautious posture in handling the fallout from the disputed Joburg ANC regional conference, choosing restraint over rushed public pronouncements as it weighs its next political and organisational steps.
After meeting on Monday, the provincial task team (PTT) decided against issuing any public statement, with sources saying members felt it was “premature” to respond despite mounting pressure for clarity.
At the heated meeting, PTT members dissected the matter, and all agreed that facts surrounding the Joburg regional conference were clouded by gossip and innuendoes.
The meeting followed last Sunday’s developments that were beamed on national TV wherein it is alleged that ballot papers from the regional conference were stored at the home of the owners of the elections agency that managed the polls.
Since then, finger-pointing has ensued, with newly elected Joburg regional leaders seemingly at odds with the ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s office.
“Hope (Papo, the PTT coordinator) gave us a report that says in those ballot papers allegedly found at the owners of the elections agency, the ballot papers for the regional top five are not there; it is only those of the additional REC members,” said a strategic insider who is a member of the PTT.
“So, we got confused by this revelation because we understand that after every conference the ballot boxes are sealed and kept in a safe place for at least six months.
“Even Hope (Papo) himself was not aware of the alleged ballot papers at the private home… Therefore, he is also in the dark; we await the report from the SGO, which should contain reports from PTT deployees and NEC deployees.”
Another mole said, “We cannot discuss based on rumours because we do not have a report before us,” adding that “the elections agency was hired by the national office, and we do not know how it is now linked to the newly elected regional chairperson (Loyiso Masuku), and everything else is gossip and rumours.”
Unaware of why the PTT had chosen silence, newly elected regional secretary Sasabona Manganye on Monday night complained about this during a press conference.
“The REC expresses its profound concern at the silence of the provincial task team at a moment when counter-revolutionary forces are openly mobilising to delegitimise the will of ANC branches and to destabilise the organisation in Johannesburg,” said Manganye, a comment that is likely going to get him in trouble with Luthuli House.
Mbalula, at his own press briefing on Thursday, warned that there would be consequences for those running their mouths on the Joburg regional conference saga.
“Those in the ANC who are leading the charge attacking the office of the secretary-general without an iota of evidence are just ill-disciplined, and the ANC will deal with them,” said Mbalula.
