Candidate lists announced
Five political parties and four independent candidates will contest this year's local government elections in Makana Municipality, with the Congress of the People (Cope) being the surprise no show for the 3 August polls.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has released the names of candidates who will stand locally, and they are ANC, DA, EFF, Azapo and UDM.
Former DA councillor Lena May will contest the elections as an independent candidate in Wards 3 and 4. Former Mind and DA chairperson Jock McConnachie will contest in Ward 8. Former ANC councillor Zonwabele Mantla will contest Ward 6. Nosikhumbuzo “Shampo” Zwane who in the last local government elections contested Ward 3 as an ANC councillor will contest the same ward as an independent candidate. Independent candidates who failed to make it on to the IEC list are Andile Qangule who was going to contest in Ward 7 and Lungisile Madinda (Ward 11).
Speaking about the ANC list, regional secretary Scara Njadayi said the Regional Executive Committee (REC) in Sarah Baartman together with the Regional List Committee had presented the final list to all Branch Executive Committees (BECs) in the seven sub-regions of the ANC in the region. Njadayi said the REC deployed officials led by the regional chairperson, Mlungisi Mvoko and the entire collective of the REC in the different sub-regions. “All branches unanimously accepted the list,” he said.
The REC further resolved to present the candidates to different branches of the ANC across the region. “It further acknowledged that there were some people appealing the process, it resolved to engage those people and take them through the process.”
Njadayi said the ANC is looking forward to winning almost all the 73 wards and all the seven municipalities in the region.
He said the branches have welcomed the confirmation of Khunjuzwa Eunice Kekana as the mayoral candidate of the ANC in the Sarah Baartman District Municipality.
Meanwhile May, who will contest two wards as an independent says she is disappointed with the way the DA has treated her after more than 20 years of dedicated service. May says her problems in the DA started last year as she was undergoing the party's internal selection processes. She says throughout the various stages of the process she had been given the impression that she had been successful in her quest to retain her position as Ward 4 councillor after the elections. May says she was surprised when she received an email from DA MP Andrew Whitfield stating that she didn’t do her constituency work as well as her council work. “I was a little bit shocked because it was the first time I had ever received anything like that,” she said.
May said she had appealed the decision, but she did not get a satisfactory answer from the party. “The only thing I received from the DA was a second email stating that my application was unsuccessful, which doesn’t even elaborate on the reasons why it was unsuccessful. They never even consulted my constituency because that is where the work is supposed to be done, you have to consult the public in Ward 4 but that hasn’t been done,” she said.
May says she was pleasantly surprised when over 100 people came to her saying she was the “people’s choice” and urged her to contest as an independent candidate. She said she had left the DA and was contesting on behalf of the community.
“I can’t go back to the DA. For me it’s very sad to see how they repay a loyal person like this. It's just that my loyalties were with the DA for 20 years, I actually gave my heart, my everything, and up to this moment I don’t know what the reason is for me not to be successful,” she said.
Responding to questions about May’s departure from the party and her allegations about unfair selection processes, Whitfield said the DA’s selection process affords all candidates the opportunity to contest in a free and fair environment.
Whitfield said in every election, incumbent DA councillors contest against new DA candidates and often many incumbents, like May, are un- successful due to poor past performance and increased competition from these new candidates.
Whitfield said this is democracy in action and it allows the DA to put forward the most fit for the purpose of the team to serve the residents of Makana.
“It is unfortunate that Councillor May has chosen to stand against the DA as an independent candidate in two wards. This is the confusion, greed and desperation of political careerists who can only strengthen the arm of the ANC in Makana,” he said.
Whitfield said the DA has nominated the most diverse and dynamic team to contest these elections for the purpose of serving the community of Makana. “I am confident that the DA will retain all of our wards and grow in many others.”
McConnachie has called on residents of Makana to vote for independents because he believes that the party-based system is at the root of most of the problems of local government. “Our council would be better-served by independent councillors who are accountable first and foremost to their constituents and not to their parties and to caucus decisions”.
To see more of McConnachie’s election campaign visit his website: www.jockmcconn.co.za.
Madinda who failed to make it to the IEC list had told Grocott’s Mail that he opted to become an independent candidate when he failed to make the ANC’s candidate list. He said as a popular choice, he expected to be elected as a councillor.
He wanted the job because he believed that the municipality needs to be run in a proper manner.
“The main thing wrong now is the tender process. For example the contractors who are supposed to be fixing Sani Street haven’t finished the job – yet they have been paid,” he said. Madinda served on Grahamstown’s Transitional Local Council when it was established in 1995 and because of his experience as a builder he sat on the housing and infrastructure portfolio committee.
Cope leader Ruth Plaatjie could not be reached for comment on why the party hasn’t made it to the IEC list.