The African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) has set aside the provincial executive committee's decision to disband the leadership of the party's Dullah Omar region in the Western Cape.

The regional executive was disbanded by the provincial African National Congress after a meeting ahead of the party's national policy conference was disrupted and police were called.

The Dullah Omar region and three others in the province then convened a media briefing objecting to the decisions taken by the provincial executive committee.

The Dullah Omar region - which is the biggest in the Western Cape and includes the Cape Town metropole - appealed its dissolution with the party's highest decision-making body between conferences - the NEC.

"The appeal of the Regional Executive Committee of the Dullah Omar region against their dissolution is upheld and the Regional Executive Committee is re-instated," ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.

'Weak and divided'

He said the NEC had taken the decision at its ordinary NEC meeting last Friday July 28, ahead of the NEC lekgotla to prepare for the mid-term budget.

Mantashe said the decision to reinstate the region followed visits by the top six to all regions in the province. They found that all the six regions were "deeply divided".

Neither the PEC nor the Dullah Omar executive escaped criticism. Mantashe said the PEC was "weak and divided", while Dullah Omar region was not made up of "angels".

Mantashe said the party would be sending leaders to the province to explain its decisions.

"The National Working Committee will return to the Western Cape to engage structures on the way forward, and that means explaining conditions for reinstatement of Dullah Omar, because it is not a region of angels," he said.

He said they will also have to amend their "way of doing things".

Mantashe said the ANC NEC had decided to be "serious and invest politically in the Western Cape", in order to win back power in the 2019 elections.

The ANC has lost the Western Cape to the DA in consecutive elections, with its electoral support plunging over the years. This has been blamed on internal divisions and fighting within the party in the province.

To turn the tide, the ANC said it would reinforce the team deployed to the Western Cape and embark on "intensive political education programme".