Bungle costs ANC ward without a vote cast
A BUNGLE in the registration of the ANC’s election lists has cost the party a ward in Uitenhage’s KwaNobuhle – before the poll is even held.
The seat is one it can ill afford to lose as it fights to keep control of Nelson Mandela Bay.
The ANC is hanging on to power in the Bay by a thread, with just 62 of the 120 seats in council.
The blunder came to light when the long-awaited ANC ward and proportional representative lists were released by the Electoral Commission yesterday.
Notably absent was a candidate for Ward 43, which is currently held by ANC councillor Tembisile Gana.
ANC Eastern Cape provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said the party had registered the wrong person by mistake for the ward.
“Unfortunately, we are not going to contest the ward because we mistakenly registered the wrong person, who happened to be an independent [candidate] and didn’t sign an acceptance form,” he said.
“That was picked up after the [IEC] deadline and we couldn’t change that as per the [law].”
The ANC needs to hold on to all its strongholds, particularly with the DA nipping at its heels to take over the municipality.
Other parties such as the EFF, United Front and UDM as well as independent candidates are also expected to be major game-changers, taking away some of the votes from the ANC.
Coming in at No 1 on the United Front’s PR list is former Bay mayor Zanoxolo Wayile, who is rumoured to be the party’s mayoral candidate.
Asked if he was likely to return to the council should the United Front get a seat, Wayile said it would be premature to comment at this stage.
For the ANC, former National Youth Development Agency boss Andile Lu-
ngisa and Bay businessman Mike Xego are among those expected to join the council after the August 3 local government elections.
Their names feature relatively high on the PR list – in what the ANC considers the “safe zone”.
Mabuyane said the party considered the candidates from numbers one to 35 on the PR list as being in the safe zone.
Mayoral committee members Joy Seale and Babalwa Lobishe are at the bottom of the list, at 44 and 47 respectively, while another member, Zukile Jodwana, failed to make the list at all.
Rambunctious councillor Lawrence Troon barely made the safe zone, at 33, while former DA councillors Penny Naidoo and Brian Kivedo, who moved over to the ANC this month, fared worse, at 35 and 38, on the PR list.
For COPE, regional chairman Khwezi Ntshanyana did not make it onto the party’s PR list, featuring on the ward candidate list only.
Ntshanyana said the PR list would be reconstituted after the elections.
The ANC’s lists have been at the centre of a number of protests in recent weeks, with widespread anger among party members who say candidates have been imposed on residents.
However, it is too late to do anything about it now as the IEC’s deadline for the submission of lists was on June 2.
Mabuyane has said previously that by-elections will have to be held in about 20 wards across the province shortly after the elections due to a mix-up with the names at the IEC.
In the latest protest, angry residents from wards 19, 22, 27 and 36 burnt tyres and blocked all the major roads into New Brighton and Zwide early yesterday.
The residents closed all entry points at Njoli, Daku and Salamntu roads and the R75 leading to KwaDwesi and Joe Slovo townships.
Police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge said the group had also tried to torch the ward councillors’ offices.
On the opposite side of Port Elizabeth, in Kuyga, a large group also protested over the candidate for their ward, Lunga Nombexeza, who they claimed had been imposed on them.
Nombexeza is also ANC candidate for Ward 50 (KwaLanga).
At one stage, a group of knife-wielding women took to beating a middle-aged man.
When a reporter started filming the altercation, some of the women threatened to assault her and charged at her with knives, while another woman screamed “there is blood”.
The reporter managed to escape unharmed.
Police spokeswoman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said they were aware of the fight and were monitoring the situation. ANC member Thandeka Mhlabiso, of Kuyga, said the residents were angry about the ward candidate list.
“They [the ANC] are asking us to vote for someone who is not even a member of our community,” Mhlabiso said.
“Yet, we had a [branch general meeting] where we elected two people – Thozamile Qushane and Nobambo Kilani – as our candidates.
“We knew Qushane, who is our current councillor, would be the one we would vote for.
“They [the ANC] are pleading with us to vote for a guy from Uitenhage who is from Ward 50.
“They claim he will resign three months after the elections.
“Who in their right minds would resign after they have been voted in, for no reason?
“We do not want this person, we want Qushane to be the one on the candidate list, so we can vote for him.
“He has led this community for 18 months and has proved to be a great leader, hence we want him to continue for the next five years.”