Calls for Mzwanele Nyhontso's removal at PAC congress amid GNU controversy

Some Pan African Congress of Azania (PAC) members want their president, Mzwanele Nyhontso, to be ousted at the party’s national elective congress taking place in Gqeberha from Thursday, and thereafter removed as the cabinet minister. 

The conference, held at the city’s Nelson Mandela University hall, will end on Sunday after the election of new leadership on Saturday. 

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

“Mtutuzeli Mama's rallying card is for the PAC to get out of the government of national unity, remove Nyhontso from parliament,” said an activist.

Mama did not respond to questions sent to him via WhatsApp, and he also did not answer the calls.

According to some activists, members claim that the participation of the PAC in the GNU was a betrayal of the struggle for land restitution.

Activists are not being named as they are not allowed to speak to the media.

“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.

Nyhontso has also been accused of going behind the Sobukwe family in approaching the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), requesting an inquest into the death of PAC founding president Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe.

The Sobukwe family has, through lawyers, written a letter ordering Nyhontso to stop his request for the inquest.

“So desperate are such that the current NEC noticed that its popularity is waning within the PAC, they hatched a scheme of approaching the NPA to open an inquest into the death of its founding president, Robert Sobukwe. 

“So hastily was this hatched, they forgot to consult the family about this sensitive matter,” he said.

 Another PAC activist said the party had no mandate to join the GNU because its election manifesto was not aligned with those of other GNU partners. 

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. 

“In the case of Johannesburg Region, Dada Morero lost the position of being the chairperson, but that did not result in him losing the position of being the mayor (of the City of Johannesburg Municipality). 

“The party (PAC) can decide whichever way, this does not necessarily translate to that (Nyhontso being recalled from parliament),”  Pooe.

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. 

He said the allegations that the NEC members were using Sobukwe’s inquest to popularise themselves ahead of the congress were untrue.

“This means that once you are in the year of the congress, the party should cease to operate. 

“If I were to assist destitute families in my constituency at this period (of the congress), I would be accused of campaigning,”  he said.

He said the request for the inquest into Sobukwe’s death has been made by Nyhontso’s predecessors.

“The only difference now is that the PAC is in the cabinet, and we can engage with the minister about the inquest,”  said Pooe.