EFF bosses to fire their rural councillors
ECONOMIC Freedom Fighters deputy president Floyd Shivambu will lead a delegation to East London this weekend, to boot out councillors who failed to get 100 votes in their respective wards during the August 3 local government elections.
The Dispatch understands that the meeting, which will be held at the Orient Theatre tomorrow at 8am, will have all branch chairs and secretaries, as well as all EFF council deployees present.
This follows the party’s national leaders’ decision in August, while reviewing local election results, to recall proportional representative councillors who secured seats in councils because of their positions on election lists, but failed to get more than 100 votes.
In a letter dated September 30 addressed to Eastern Cape councillors, the party’s secretary-general Godrich Gardee wrote: “Please make your own travel arrangements to attend. No apologies will be entertained.”
EFF national leaders decided to disband both the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provincial structures in August, saying the relatively poor showing at the August polls was a disappointment and called for a major shakeup at ground level.
The party failed to secure a municipality throughout the country, and did not garner enough votes to be an official opposition at any of the Eastern Cape’s 55 municipalities.
But the Dispatch understands that in both metros – Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela – as well as Sarah Baartman region, the situation is not as critical, as none of the existing councillors would lose their positions. “It’s the rural councils which will be affected by these changes because it is in the far-flung rural areas where the ANC is still enjoying a lot of support, especially from the elderly,” said the senior EFF leader.
Gardee and Shivambu could not be reached for comment at the time of writing. — zineg@dispatch.co.za