ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule has once again called on members to not seek the legal route when trying to address disputes within the political party and that no one is bigger than the ANC.
Magashule addressed the closing ceremony of the ANC Gauteng’s three day elective conference on Sunday.
The province elected David Makhura unopposed as its chairperson, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi as his deputy, Jacob Khawe as secretary, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko as the deputy secretary and former Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau as the provincial treasurer.
“Unity is not just going to happen because we come together, sit together, walk together and go out there, it’s a process,” said Magashule.
While he said the party needed to work towards unity, he questioned why those who felt angry opted to go to the courts.
On Friday he delivered a similar message at the KwaZulu-Natal provincial conference, which also took place this weekend.
KwaZulu-Natal is the ANC’s biggest province, and has been plagued by numerous court battles, which saw a provincial executive committee led by Sihle Zikalala dissolved and a previous attempt to hold a conference barred by the high court in Pietermaritzburg.
The same court dismissed yet another attempt to block this weekend’s KZN conference.
Gauteng faced similar threats, with a bid to halt this conference by disgruntled ANC members from Ekurhuleni, being struck off the roll by the South Gauteng High Court.
“There is no need to do such comrades,” remarked Magashule.
“In our constitution, our new constitution there is a clause which integrates the national dispute resolution committee,” said Magashule who insisted that the party had the necessary mechanisms to resolve its members’ complaints on its own.
The party set up the committee led by Magashule’s deputy Jessie Duarte to address the numerous complaints from members across the country, in a bid to avoid having so many of them challenging process outcomes in the courts.
“In the ANC’s one million members plus, you can’t be one or two, or three or four who are not satisfied,” said the party’s secretary general.
No one more popular than ANC
“The ANC on its own is a brand, not us as individuals, the brand is the ANC,” said Magashule.
“You become popular cause you are a member of the ANC,” continued the ANC secretary general.
Although he did not name any of political parties born from the ANC, he said those who started splinter parties were made popular by the ANC.
“First and foremost, all of them were members of the ANC and when they thought they are now known by South Africans they decided to have their own organisations and those organisations come and go,” said Magashule.
He said the unity of the ANC was “sacrosanct” and called on leaders to respect those who put them in their positions.