SACP North West welcomes the decision of the ANC NDC on the Tlokwe ANC members appeal:

The SACP in North West welcomes the announced decision of the ANC NDC on the appeal by the ANC members who were expelled from the ANC following the decision of the North West ANC PDC decision. We want to stress that this is not a normal process because under normal circumstances internal disciplinary process of an Alliance partner should be handled "internally, procedurally and organizationally by the affected Alliance partner and with its affected members.

As the SACP we are officially and publicly welcoming this decision because it may live as the catalyst for political stability and organizational tolerance with the ranks of the ANC in the Province, if there is one or two organizational and political statements by this ruling which may be a good lesson for those in the ANC and those that on daily basis spend their life predicting the demise of the African National Congress.

From this decision the SACP in the North West has learned the following lesson:

a. That contrary to many accusations leveled against the ANC disciplinary process and its leadership, the ANC is not vindictive and respects its internal processes. This should also be a lesson because even on the PDC(NW)- the two comrades who appeared and pleaded guilty were not expelled from the ANC. The ANC (nationally) leadership was accused of either conniving with the ANC PEC on purging(as claimed), this decision proves those that wanted to drag the leadership caliber of the ANC leadership into mud and instead of celebrating they should eating a humble pie.

b. That ANC members should remain organizationally disciplined even under difficult challenging times, and ensure that they follow all the ANC internal processes whether its discipline or internal discussions or deployment disagreements. We call on comrades in the Province to desist any temptation that leads them to taking decisions to leave the ANC and join any of the political parties opposed to the ANC because of frustrations and at times factional battles in our Province.

We therefore call on the affected comrades to work with the ANC leadership on ensuring their proper re-integration within the ANC structures, and call both the ANC PEC leadership and the NEC deployees to ensure that the process that has been started by NEC deployees on political and organization resolution of the current political challenges in the Province, should be properly handled and fast-tracked.

Statement issued by Madoda Sambatha, SACP North West Provincial Secretary, August 25 2013

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