Durban — The South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) in KwaZulu-Natal has mended its fragile ties with its alliance partner, the ANC, after reversing its recent decision to cut ties with the ANC.
Sanco is in an alliance with the ANC, which also includes the South African Communist Party (SACP) and labour federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
Sanco provincial chairperson Lawrence Dube announced during a media briefing on Wednesday that the movement had decided to revive its marriage with the ANC, after serving it with divorce papers earlier this month.
“We have met with the leadership of the ANC in the province, and we will fight to have a united alliance in the province,” said Dube.
At the core of the Sanco’s grievances were the allegations that the ANC is failing to lead the alliance, with the movement labelling the alliance “fake”.
Sanco also rebutted speculation suggesting the recent severance of ties with the ANC was fuelled by an alleged desire to ally with the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) led by former president Jacob Zuma.
Zuma also once led Sanco as its KZN chairperson until the structure he led was abruptly disbanded early last year.
Addressing this, Dube said: “There was a rumour that we were cutting ties with the ANC because we wanted to go to the MK Party, that is a total lie. Sanco does not have any ties with the MKP. Our position is clear from the national conference that Sanco will be supporting the ANC, and that is what we are standing for even today.”
Despite the alliance partners smoking the peace pipe, Sanco has asked Mafika Mndebele, the provincial spokesperson of the ANC, to apologise for the comments he made after Sanco announced it was cutting ties with the ANC.
Mndebele reportedly trivialised the concerns of Sizwe Cele, Sanco's provincial secretary, implying the decision to dump the ANC stemmed solely from Cele’s personal feelings rather than a collective stance, said Dube.
This has left Sanco leaders requesting an unconditional apology from Mndebele.
At the recent press conference, Cele responded to Mndebele's remarks, highlighting the implication that Sanco's leadership contributed little during meetings with alliance partners.
"He meant that the PEC leaders are just ghosts of Cele. We hope that Mndebele has realised that he made a mistake as he was not supposed to speak like that,” said Cele.
Mndebele’s comment will be added once received.
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