PAC activists call for ousting of party leader amid GNU controversy

 THE Pan African Congress of Azania’s (PAC) participation in the Government of National Unity (GNU) is among the reasons some of the organisation’s members want its president, Mzwanele Nyhontso ousted at the party’s national elective congress. 

The congress under way in Gqeberha ends on Sunday after the election of new leadership on Saturday. 

Party insiders said some delegates have been instructed by branches to vote out Nyhontso and replace him with senior national executive committee (NEC) member, Mtutuzeli Mama. 

Some members apparently claim that the participation of the PAC in the GNU was a betrayal of the struggle for land restitution, said party activists.

“The participation (in the GNU) was not canvassed amongst its rank and file, who feel that land reform is not the same thing as the return of the land wholesale to its people,” said the activists.

Nyhontso, who is the Land Reform and Rural Development minister, is accused of bringing the PAC into the GNU without the mandate of the party members.

“Veterans of the party feel that at least a special congress would have sufficed rather than the party being dragged into this (GNU), which they consider a sell-out agreement, kicking and screaming,” said an activist.

Another activist accused Nyhontso of breaching the PAC policy by using his ministerial position to give out title deeds to rural communities.

“There is no PAC policy that says people in rural land must be given title deeds because the PAC policy says the land should be communal and be shared,” the activist said.

Responding to the campaign to oust Nyhontso, PAC secretary general Apa Pooe said that although Nyhontso represents the PAC in parliament, as a minister, he was carrying the mandate of the government, not of a political party on the issue of land.   

Pooe said he did not know who would be contesting to fill the positions.  

“All of us, as the leadership, don’t know who the branches have nominated. 

“As for nominating from the floor, we would only know once the nominations are done as to who is contesting,”  he said. 

He said he was in constant communication with Mama, who is an NEC member, but he never indicated that he would contest the presidency. 

“It is just hearsay until the official process is opened,” said Pooe.

He said both he and Nyhontso were still popular with the party.

He said even if Nyhontso were to be voted out by the delegates, it did not mean that he would automatically be recalled from parliament and cabinet. 

He said members who were uncomfortable with the PAC joining the GNU would be given a chance to express their views at the conference.  

“During the general elections, none of the parties knew that there was not going to be an outright majority winner, and we were confronted by that immediately after the elections. 

“When there was a move to form the GNU, the PAC national working committee had to meet and decide whether to join or not to join, and the NEC took that decision. 

“For the first time since that decision, we are having a congress of the members of the PAC, who are going to reflect on a decision taken by the NEC, whether it was correct or incorrect. But in any situation, there would be those who are happy and those who are unhappy,” he said.

Cape Times