Date set for BCM ‘rebels’ to account for stance

ANC leaders in the Eastern Cape have set aside next Sunday for 21 rebel Buffalo City councillors to account for themselves.

The provincial disciplinary committee (PDC) handed over letters to council chief whip Mzwandile Vaaibom on Wednesday afternoon to distribute to all affected councillors.

“Most of the letters have been issu with two or three of them still with me,” Vaaibom said. “Remember this is not my competence. I’m just distributing them on behalf of the PDC. That I have done as quickly as possible so that people can prepare for the hearing on February 26.”

The 21 councillors were identified at a meeting three weeks ago between the party’s Dr WB Rubusana regional leaders and top five provincial officials, after they were found to have defied party orders by voting against an ANC position in council last month.

The group include deputy mayor Zoliswa Matana, Mandela memorial funds accused Sindiswa Gomba, Crosby Kolela, Gwebile Gosani, Ayanda Mapisa and head of corporate services Sindile Toni.

They were found to have voted with opposition parties, who preferred Nonceba Mbali-Majeng as acting municipal manager against the ANC’s choice of Ncumisa Sdukwana.

Other councillors implicated are: Pumla Yenana-Nonjiwu, Senduku Maphuka, Zandisile Tokwe, Ntukulana Ncotela, Mawethu Marata, Gideon Norexe, Peter Kiki, Ntombekhaya Ntshebe, Mzukisi Relu, Vuyani Peter, Sindiswa Skepe, Nceba Kilmani, Nokuphumla Gamnca, Bongani Dyonase and Mzukisi Relu.

ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said: “The charges they face relate to their decision to vote against the ANC caucus decision on the party’s preferred candidate for the municipal manager’s position.”

Mbali-Majeng won the vote, but subsequently resigned saying she had too much work in her own directorate.

Bob Naidoo was last week elected as the new acting accounting officer.

In preparation for the hearings, the ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC) has replaced its head of the disciplinary committee, Mzuyanda Sokujika, with Phumza Dyantyi.

This was after the PEC realised that Sokujika would have to recuse himself as he might be asked to testify. Sokujika was the PEC deployee who advised the ANC caucus in BCM not to field anyone as city manager but to instead advise council to ask cooperative governance MEC Fikile Xasa to intervene and deploy one of his officials to act in the position until a new incumbent is appointed.

A similar defiance from within the ANC’s own caucus occurred in the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality in 2011, when ANC councillors almost delivered the mayorship to the opposition by voting with the opposition against the party’s preferred candidate, Nonkoliso Ngqongwa.

After a disciplinary process some of the senior KSD councillors were demoted but none was fired. —