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Last Updated: Oct 15, 2008 - 12:16:44 PM |
Shilowa, who resigned last month, is to face the media alone at a
conference in Fourways, Johannesburg, on Wednesday morning. The event
is to be broadcast live on e.tv and 567 Cape Talk radio.
George told the Cape Times on Tuesday night that Shilowa would provide
"all the details, everything" about the date of the national convention
and where it would be held - widely speculated to be Kliptown, Soweto,
where the 1955 Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter.
George said he and Lekota would not attend the press conference. They
have been suspended from the ANC.
Shilowa stepped down after 10 years at Gauteng's helm on a point of
principle over Thabo Mbeki's ousting as president by the ANC
leadership. He said he could not defend the decision.
At the time, he denied rumours that he would be part of Lekota's plans
to start a new party. Now he is poised to throw his weight behind it.
Shilowa is to announce his decision just hours ahead of an
extraordinary meeting of the ANC's national executive committee (NEC),
which may expel Lekota and George.
The ANC's national spokesperson, Jessie Duarte, has said the NEC, as
the party's highest decision-making body between conferences, is fully
empowered to make the pair's suspension permanent.
ANC president Jacob Zuma set the tone while speaking at the National
Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) congress in Vanderbijlpark, south of
Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
Zuma condemned Lekota and George for their "charlatan shenanigans" and
warned of "very radical decisions" by the NEC when it met on Wednesday.
"I also remind the dissidents that history has been extremely unkind to
those who have left the ANC," Zuma said.
"Once you get out of the ANC, you realise there is no sea, no waves to
ride on - you have to walk on your own feet."
If Lekota and George are expelled, they will be the highest-profile
members to have been kicked out of the ANC since Bantu Holomisa was
shown the door in 1996 - also by the NEC.
Lekota confirmed on Tuesday that he had received formal notification of
his suspension.
Alliance leaders closed ranks behind Zuma, with SACP leader Blade
Nzimande - a member of the ANC's NEC and NWC - telling the Numsa
delegates that the party rebels were trying "to destroy the ANC".
Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi told the congress that
Lekota's "ultimatum" to the ANC was a "publicity stunt" aimed at
drumming up support for a new party.
He accused Lekota of trying to change the ANC from within by moving it
away from being "a home for all" to a "party for the black elite".
"We have been calling on (the rebels) to return and not to embark on
the route to nowhere, but if they insist (and) go ahead and form a new
black DA, then they must know we tried to talk them out of committing
political suicide," Vavi said.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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