The ANC national working committee (NWC) is due to decide on Monday whether the party's eThekwini chair Zandile Gumede and Mpumalanga treasurer Mandla Msibi will keep their jobs following the party’s amendment of its step-aside rules.
Two NWC sources confirmed that the matter will be raised as there is a strong push from supporters of President Cyril Ramaphosa for Gumde and Msibi to vacate their positions.
The previous national executive committee (NEC) meeting decided that party members who have stepped aside because of criminal charges must not stand for leadership positions.
Ramaphosa’s opponents want the new rule to apply only to upcoming conferences — but the president’s backers want it to be implemented retrospectively.
A NWC member sympathetic to Gumede slammed this as “an attempt to reverse decisions of a democratic process like a regional conference”.
“I expect in the next NWC [on Monday] that matter will come up, and of course we will object, but we know they will ignore and go ahead. But it's good for them to expose themselves because then the regions can stand up at the policy conference and say 'you had no right'.”
Another party leader defended the move to remove Gumede, saying the rules had been amended to protect the integrity of the ANC.
“Yes, I can confirm this eThekwini and Mpumalanga matter arose — it was raised in an appropriate platform and there is no malice in saying ANC leaders must be above reproach, and that any misconduct or dishonesty is dealt with in a serious and consistent manner,” said the NEC member.
“Step-aside is protecting the ANC — it will be amended when leaders see loopholes that defeat the purpose. At the end of the day it is the ANC that must be renewed and saved, it's not about personalities.”
But Gumede’s supporters said rules are being changed to exclude those suspected of opposing Ramaphosa’s second-term bid.
“A number of people have said this step-aside rule should be placed before a national conference — to be deliberated upon so that if it's given a go-ahead, we all know that it has a national stamp of approval from the branches,” said another ANC leader.
This comes as some ANC members in eThekwini have written to the ANC’s national dispute resolution committee challenging the credentials that were adopted at the eThekwini conference that elected Gumede.
At the heart of the complaint is the exclusion of the regional task team from voting and a decision to allow an ANC Women's League delegation to vote when their term of office had expired.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said Luthuli House had referred the complaint to the KwaZulul-Natal provincial executive committee.
Thabani Nyawose, who stood against Gumede and lost, distanced himself from the grievances.
“The regional executive committee is working well. We are discussing ANC and government programmes and I am not aware of any sentiment of unhappiness from any branch. Things are normal ... we accepted defeat. Those people writing letters are not representing the majority of the branches of the ANC,” said Nyawose.
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