The African National Congress (ANC) regional task team (RTT) in Nelson Mandela Bay has condemned the circulation of candidate lists ahead of the party's regional conference in February.

ANC RTT spokesperson Gift Ngqondi said this was sowing divisions among ANC members.

The candidate lists included the names of regional convener Vuyani Limba and regional co-ordinator Bheza Ntshona.

However, the two have distanced from the lists, Ngqondi said.

The regional leadership in Nelson Mandela Bay was disbanded in 2014 by President Jacob Zuma and the task team was appointed the following year.

Ngqondi said there were already five candidate lists doing the rounds ahead of the regional conference.

"In the political jockeying for power within the ANC, different factions will fiercely contest each other's influence over the membership. That is normal practice that has for centuries fossilised itself in political organisations, and not least in the ANC. But it must not be at the detriment of the ANC and its values," he said.

'Money-bag' culture

He called for the party not to undervalue the dangers of using money to subvert internal ANC democratic practices by whichever faction.

"However, we should not have our intelligence insulted by those who themselves introduced this culture of money bags, and now behave like the typical paragons of virtue advocating against the eating of mice whilst the tales of those mice protrude [from] their mouths."

There should be consistency in dealing with this matter, he believes, otherwise it will not be taken seriously.

"Before discussing who should lead the organisation ANC structures will first discuss the political and socioeconomic tasks which face the organisation and revolution," Ngqondi said.

This should be done in a disciplined fashion, the RTT said.

He called for members to allow ANC branches to discuss what kind of leadership was needed to bring the ANC back into power in the metro.