Axed Makana councillor says ‘toxic’ EFF treated her unfairly

Axed EFF PR councillor in the Makana municipality, Anelisa Bentele, has ripped into the “toxic” party, claiming it exploited and treated her like a slave before dumping her.

Bentele was removed by the party after she failed to get 100 votes in her ward. In 2016, EFF leader Julius Malema announced that EFF PR councillors who failed to meet the requirement would be replaced with ward councillors. Bentele got 68 votes.

However, she said there were PR councillors who were not ditched by the party even though they did not meet the threshold.

“I’m convinced it’s personal when it comes to my case.”

Bentele said the party had treated her unfairly. She alleged there was bias in the implementation of the rule because some leaders used it as a weapon to fight their factional battles.

“There is a councillor who got way less votes than me ... she got 48 votes but is still in council,” Bentele said.

“I was removed because I am not on good terms with a certain person who is killing the organisation.”

On March 16, Bentele received correspondence from EFF secretarygeneral Marshall Dlamini instructing her to step down because she did not meet the threshold of 100 votes.

She said she felt hard done by and challenged the decision. “I responded, citing [mitigating] circumstances.”

“I was solely doing EFF administration work during the campaigning period. I would leave the office after 9pm or 11pm sometimes.”

Bentele said this had prevented her from campaigning properly. She said it was not easy for her to focus on her ward and do justice to her campaign.

“The EFF purports to be championing the interests of the poor working class in Africa yet they treat workers as garbage,” Bentele said.

“I was never called to a hearing to present my side of the story.

“EFF has no regard for its workers, it is exploitive and abusive.

“I worked in the EFF constituency office since 2019 and I was never paid a cent. I was a mere naive slave who was committed to the EFF.

“EFF is not an option to the politics of SA but a demagogue patriarchal organisation of Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu,” she said.

She said she was not contemplating appealing against the decision.

The EFF has since replaced Bentele with Noluthando Buwa, who is said to be leading the party’s candidate list.

On Tuesday, EFF provincial chair Yazini Tetyana referred the Dispatch to the party’s spokesperson, Sinawo Tambo, who could not be reached by the print deadline.

In response to an attempted call on Wednesday, Talk of the Town was requested by Tambo to send a text, as he was in a meeting. TOTT did so, but had not received a response by our print deadline. —