Chaos over councillors’ selection lists ahead of IEC’s registration deadline
THE ANC is facing another headache after several of the party’s branches lodged complaints that candidate lists, for the upcoming local government elections, had been rigged by various party leaders.
Branches in North West’s Bojanala region are considering legal action to reverse the lists handed to the ANC national executive committee (NEC) at their meeting this weekend.
Yesterday, the ANC was still locked in a meeting to consolidate the lists, while various provincial headquarters saw a number of aggrieved party members march to their offices to lodge complaints.
In the Eastern Cape, ANC spokesperson Loyiso Magqashela told the media that the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) was still in a meeting to finalise their list, but had agreed to set up a committee to investigate the unethical behaviour of some of their members in the selection process of candidates.
In Mpumalanga, scores of ANC members marched to the Mbombela provincial headquarters to challenge the outcome of the list process.
In Gauteng, hundreds of ANC members of the Moretele sub-region in Hammanskraal and neighbouring towns in North West marched to Luthuli House, the ANC’s headquarters, to hand over a memorandum. In the memorandum, these members accused the ANC interim provincial committee (IPC) led by Hlomane Chauke of having manipulated their candidate lists.
Moretele Local Municipality mayor Andries Monaheng and party leader George Marindi led a group of aggrieved members. In their memorandum, addressed to ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, the Electoral Committee chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe and the National List committee, they asked them to reverse the list handed over to them by the North West extended provincial executive committee.
In their memorandum, the 26 branches of Moretele sub-region wrote: “We comrades from 26 branches of Moretele sub-region request the following: That the manipulated list of ward candidates by the extended North West PEC (IPC) from Moretele be reversed, and that the list of ward candidates voted by our communities be considered.
“We are here, as we no longer trust the extended IPC, or any structure in the region and province to deal with our disputes, as they don’t have the love for the ANC but their own direct personal interest in who should become councillors,” Marindi said.
The aggrieved members also asked the ANC to discipline all those who allegedly manipulated the list and contravened Motlanthe’s elections guidelines. Chauke and ANC North West spokesperson Kenny Morolong were not available for comment.
ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe was also not available for comment, but the party is expected to give details of the outcome of the NEC meeting today.
Yesterday, the Electoral Commission of SA revealed that political parties and independent candidates intending to contest the local government elections scheduled for October 27 have until the close of business today to submit their nominations and prescribed election deposits.