ANC is under siege: Mantashe

African National Congress’s (ANC) national chairperson Gwede Mantashe told party members at a meeting in Welkom that the organisation was under siege.

Mantashe says urgent measures are required to arrest the decline in membership and support of the party.

He warned members that they stood to lose the province in the next elections if this was not done.

Tensions have been simmering in the Free State since an Interim Provincial Committee took over the leadership.

ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe meets party branches in Welkom, in the Free State province:

Party members have now approached the courts, questioning the legitimacy of the interim structure.
They also want to hold regional and provincial conferences.

“We are going to launch this province, it would not go to the national conference as an IPC. It will go there as a province that has been launched with a proper PEC.”

On ANC members taking the organisation to court, Mantashe says divisions in the party will remain, but reviving the party will continue amongst members.

“You don’t wish away factionalism; you do political work. People must appreciate the harm that is inflicted by factionalism and you that by meeting, and we discuss that in detail that let’s get out of pockets of individual’s and be members of the ANC.”

The ANC IPC conceded that it still had a lot of work to do in the province.

Free State ANC IPC convener Mxolisi Dukwana says: “We doing all in our power to get the organisation right but the BGM’s are actually arranged by the branches.”

Mantashe expressed optimism that the Free State would hold its elective conference by the time the national conference to be held in December approaches.