ANC rebuttal politics
Women flash buttocks in poll protest
‘THESE are our CVs,” chanted a group of women who stripped naked as they stormed into the offices of the ANC in Pretoria – leaving staffers, security personnel and passers-by in utter shock.
Yesterday morning, the group of about 16 women unzipped their pants, took off their bras and turned to the other side to show off their backsides.
“Here are our CVs,” they shouted as they touched themselves on their buttocks.
Stunned, a security guard at the entrance of the building remarked he wished he had a video camera to film the incident. “These women are really crazy,” he said after witnessing the nude scene unfold in broad daylight.
The women were protesting against the outcome of a branch general meeting held at Lebelo Primary School in Hammanskraal on Sunday. Violence was also reported at ANC branch meetings in Bronkhorstspruit and Winterveld. This comes as the country gears up for the local government elections, expected to be the most fiercely contested yet.
In Hammanskraal, the naked women said bouncers, armed with pangas and firearms, stormed the meeting and stopped them from taking part in the voting process to elect branch committee members.
According to them, a committee was elected after they had been forced to leave the venue.
They told The Star’s sister paper, the Pretoria News, that they were slapped on the cheeks and dragged out of the meeting.
The women fingered Tshwane member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for transport and ANC regional deputy secretary, George Matjila, as the official who had ordered the bouncers to disrupt the meeting.
Matjila denied the claim, saying he was never part of that meeting and was not associated with bouncers: “I am an ANC leader. I am not working with bouncers and cannot be associated with them.”
Matjila was deployed by the ANC to oversee the Winterveld branch meeting, which also degen- erated into chaos. Coincidentally, according to Matjila, the Winterveld meeting was disrupted by bouncers who arrived and stood up at the back.
“They started chanting songs and disrupted the meeting,” he said. It was claimed he had a confrontation with one of the people at a meeting, but he denied this.
The women said bouncers tampered with the register by faking the signatures of people who were not even at the meeting. They later got dressed and held a meeting with ANC regional secretary Paul Mojapelo to register their complaints.
According to them, Mojapelo had told them he was aware of the matter and that he had reported their complaints to the ANC provincial executive committee. He promised to respond by Thursday, the said.
The women claimed some people elected to the committee were not ANC members in good standing. The branch meeting in Hammanskraal was overseen by Tshwane MMC for health and development Eulanda Mabusela, who couldn’t be reached for comment.
One of the women said she was manhandled in front of Mabusela. “I told her to stop the meeting because of the chaos, but she ignored me,” she said.
Tshwane regional ANC spokesman Teboho Joala said he was not at the office when the women took off their clothes. “I will have to investigate the situation first before I can comment,” he said.
Regarding their complaints, he said there were very clear guidelines in the ANC that were known by the members while outlining processes that ought to be followed by those who were unhappy.
He added that the ANC would investigate the circumstances around which the matter was reported to the media.
“We do not encourage discussion of the party’s internal processes in the media,” he said.
Another branch meeting in Bronkhorstspruit was also reportedly dogged by reports of violent behaviour. But Joala, who chaired that meeting, said no one who claimed to have been assaulted there had approached him.