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While the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is engrossed in what insiders describe as “heated” debates about the future of the party’s general secretary, Ace Magashule, and Jacob Zuma’s refusal to appear before the Commission of Inquiry on the Capture of the State, a group of ANC supporters today marches on Luthuli House, the headquarters of the party.
The group, which supports the Magashule-Zuma faction, is calling for the dissolution of the NEC.
The contentious rule of passage affecting members facing criminal charges has been mentioned among the issues being discussed.
Supporting Magashule and Zuma, the organizers of the march have called on supporters of the ANC and the Mass Democratic Movement to join the protest, led by the former lieutenant general of the South African National Defense Force and a member of the high command of uMkhonto we Sizwe, Maomela Mojo Motau.
The march signals the depth of the factional battles within the ruling party.
An NEC source has described the debates over uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association spokesperson, Carl Niehaus, Magashule, and the radical economic transformation group’s role as “red hot.”
Commenting on the ramifications of the ANC factional battles, Johannesburg University politics professor Siphamandla Zondi said: “Because the ruling party is the central part of our democratic system of government, its cohesion and unity they are very critical.
“When the ruling party is not united, the center of our democratic system is fractured. “When there is also acrimony within the ruling party, the cohesion of our system is weakened.
“But that does not mean that there should not be disputes of positions and views within these different political parties. If a party political dispute spills over into the state, it can cause real problems for us.
“One only hopes that the contradictions inherent in a party as broad and diverse as the ANC are managed so that they do not undermine the cohesion of our democratic system.”
Zondi said that the rule of standing aside from the ANC was seen by different factions within the ANC as “representing positions in relation to who should and who should not lead the ANC.”
Institute for Global Dialogue political analyst Sanusha Naidu said the current situation in the ANC was a manifestation of years of factional fermentation.
“What is happening now should not be seen as something that has just emerged, because it is a phenomenon that has been fermenting for a long time.
“Seeing that challenges and battlefields become much more visible and irreconcilable at times speaks to us of a party going through its own existential dilemmas and the impact on the government of the republic.
“It also tells us about the level of sustainability and consolidation of a party that needs to advance.
“The confrontation in this NEC is not only about the rule of the step aside, but also about questions based on party control and the battle for the soul of the ANC.
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