Former Eastern Cape African National Congress (ANC) treasurer and MEC Thandi Marawu has defected to the African Transformation Movement (ATM), because of the teachings of her church.

Marawu, who up until May 2018 was in the Eastern Cape Cabinet as public works MEC, said she joined the ATM, in line with the instructions of Twelve Apostles Church of Christ leader Caesar Nongqunga.

"As the time goes, the problem that is in the ANC - factionalism, killing of comrades - when the chief apostle noticed this, he tried to have a meeting with ANC leadership.

"He looked at the ANC and asked himself if the ANC was following God's law. The answer was a big no. They are killing each other, fighting each other. God would not forgive us if we continue supporting the ANC," she said.

Marawu was part of a group of disgruntled ANC heavyweights in the province who challenged the validity of the 2017 Eastern Cape provincial conference, dubbed the "festival of chairs" by President Cyril Ramaphosa. She lost her position in the provincial Cabinet shortly after the election of Oscar Mabuyane as party chair.

Marawu was part of a faction that supported Premier Phumulo Masualle for a third term.

"Everyone knows there was no conference in the Eastern Cape. My treasurer report on the situation said that if the ANC was a party of peace, that conference would have been dissolved. Being an MEC will never get you anywhere. I am not against the ANC. I still love the ANC. It's the people that are leading it," she said.

In response, Sanco provincial secretary Tony Duba said Marawu was part of a group of "sojourners" who were bitter after losing at the conference.

"Our determination is that the same people were funding the troublemakers in the province," Duba said.

Marawu added that some high ranking ANC provincial leaders and former leaders were in the process of defecting to the ATM. She is the second Eastern Cape political heavyweight to move to the ATM. Former Democratic Alliance (DA's) provincial leader Veliswa Mvenya joined ATM last year. This after she lost out to Nqaba Bhanga at the DA's provincial elective conference.