Divisions and defiant deployees have cost the Eastern Cape African National Congress (ANC) millions in legal fees, a senior Provincial Executive Committee member said.

ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said that legal action from within had hit the organisation's coffers to the tune of R5-million, the Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday.

Mabuyane was speaking at a commemoration ceremony held for one of the ANC's fallen heroes, Jeff Wabena, in Mdantsane at the weekend. Wabena was assassinated while chairing an ANC meeting there 20 years ago.

He singled out the Amathole Region as the main culprits, citing councillors from Amahlathi, Buffalo City, Mbhashe and Mnquma municipalities, who have all taken the ANC to court in the past 16 months.

He said that the organisation was in the process of instituting internal disciplinary action against these members.

Mabuyane also accused ANC councillors within the Buffalo City Municipality of fighting among themselves instead working to develop areas like Mdantsane.

"The ANC can't be proud of ANC Buffalo City councillors because they don't listen and implement the organisation's directions.

"They sit in (coffee shops) and discuss their own personal ambitions instead of what the organisation wants. These people should also have left the ANC."