Wendy Nelson will not act independently from the ANC. This is according to Wessels Morweng, who weighed in on Nelson’s appointment as Premier of the North West.
Morweng, who is the ANC North West Media Liaison, told Political Analysis South Africa on Thursday, 10 May 2018 that the ANC would hold her accountable in her new role.
“There’s no independence. The ANC will forever hold Mme Wendy accountable…she’s accountable to the African National Congress, so you can’t want to place the matter to be around comrade Supra as an individual,” he said.
Although the former premier of the province, Supra Mahumapelo has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence, he remains the Chairperson of the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC). Morweng says that Mahumapelo’s position in the PEC will not interfere with Nelson’s appointment as acting premier.
“Comrade Supra is part of the ANC as the Chairperson so you can’t say that comrade Wendy is going to act independently from the ANC,” he said.
“There are no two centres of power. The power is the African National Congress. Comrade Wendy will derive her mandate from the ANC not from Supra; from the ANC Provincial Executive Committee,” he added.
Morweng says the ANC will try to explain to disgruntled members of the party in the province that the decisions taken by PEC are binding, as they are the highest party structure.
“The ANC is duty bound to make sure that it inculcates political consciousness to its members for its members to understand democratic centralism that when the upper structures take a decision we the lower structures should be able to abide,” he said.
“The ANC will try its level best to humble itself before these members to try explain to them the decisions of the organisations,” he added.
Morweng said members of the party who have been campaigning for Mahumapelo’s exit, including the so-called Revolutionary Council, would be facing disciplinary proceedings from the party’s leadership.
He explained that “the organisation [the ANC in the North West] also took a decision yesterday during the meeting that its members must go through a disciplinary hearing and explain what is the Revolutionary Council, what is it doing, what does it stand for.”