By Lehlohonolo Lehana
Limpopo ANC’s Vhembe region has pleaded with President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently intervene in the issues of governance in municipalities and the provincial government as well as the state of the party in the province.
The residents, comprising ANC branches, community leaders, religious and traditional leaders and ordinary citizens told Ramaphosa that Limpopo ANC was dying a natural death.
“We are pleading with you President, an urgent intervention is needed in the Limpopo ANC and the Limpopo provincial government. We say this to you President because we do not see any leadership in Limpopo,” the residents told Ramaphosa during his visit to Christ Worship House Church, near Tshidizini Hospital, outside Thohoyandou on Saturday.
The PEC has been riddled with divisions since provincial chair Stan Mathabatha ditched Cyril Ramaphosa’s Renew22 camp and made a last- minute bid to convince some Limpopo branch delegates to vote for Zweli Mkhize instead.
Mathabatha has faced heavy backlash after the election of new leadership during the ANC’s 55th national conference in Nasrec in 2022. In February, when the ANC was celebrating its 111th anniversary at Masemola village, Mathabatha was booed as he addressed members.
Some ANC members wanted Mathabatha to be recalled, accusing him of backstabbing the collective.
Others feel Mathabatha should not be removed from his position, saying he has been running the provincial administration well, and arguing that the party guidelines allow for members to lobby one another to vote for their preferred candidates.
In response, Ramaphosa said one of the main principles of the ANC was to renew the ANC and not to destroy the movement. Ramaphosa said he had a meeting during his first visit to Limpopo after his December re-election and agreed in principle to continue working together with everyone for the sake of the unity of the organisation.
He said there was no planned disbandment of the Limpopo PEC or administration. “We are still going to sit down as a collective and assess the state of the province, which is why we are here,” he said.
Ramaphosa said the party is also working around the clock to find solutions to service delivery challenges in Limpopo.
“They raised it in a very positive way and they’ve got proposals that they put forwards to us. We did say that we are in the process of prioritising issues such as water, reticulation as well as roads.”
Ramaphosa admitted that it won’t be an easy feat.
“But we also gave them a reality check because the needs are so enormous that we will be getting on with addressing those issues, and some areas may not be touched at the time that everyone would want, but we are not going to leave any area unturned or unattended to.”
Ramaphosa also said, “there is still lingering concern about how we are going to deal with VBS, and we are going to report back to the NWC on how best we are able to address some of these concerns that are still present amongst us.”