Picture: Former North West MEC for Tourism
By REGINALD KANYANE
The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) in the North West came out gun blazing and defended one of its own, Wendy Nelson. This comes after allegations emerged that there is a plot to deny Nelson an entry into the North West Provincial Legislature to become a Member of Provincial Legislature (MPL) as ANC member.
ANCWL acting provincial secretary, Bitsa Lenkopane who is also an MPL said Nelson is the next member on the ANC’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) list to ascend and serve as MPL for the party provided there a space.
“We will hold the ANC to task to abide by the member’s constitutional rights and never find itself discriminating unfairly against Nelson. We believe that the exchanges that have been making rounds on social media will not play into the provincial ANC thinking.
“Comrade Nelson is the ANC List Conference product that has produced the current status quo. She is a member of the ANCWL’s Provincial Executive Committee, a member of the minority group in the country and she is a woman. Comrades have previously painted her bad for reasons of malice intent,” Lenkopane said.
She further said Nelson who is facing charges of fraud has been previously called to answer for those allegations and she has not been found guilty by any court of law. Lenkopane said they will defend Nelson in any patriarchal kangaroo court.
“As women, we will not be silenced or deterred by allegations that have never been tested by any court of the South African Law. As the league, we will not allow tendencies that seek to hijack the ANC’s operations in the province to displace and deny women their constitutional rights to play their roles as ANC members in good standing,” she said.
However, the African National Congress Veteran’s League (ANCVL) provincial secretary, Mike Sebakwane said: “The movement is faced with the enormous task of uprooting this scourge of corruption in the public institutions in order to provide the much needed basic service delivery to the people of this province. We have noticed attempts to discredit good comrades and to promote some who are well-known reactionaries and looters.
“The ANC and its alliance must not be distracted by the corrupt elements masquerading as champions of the justice principle which says “innocent till proven guilty”. The purveyors of this concept pretend that they do not know the resolution of the 54th Conference in Nasrec, which says that any member who is implicated in corruption should step aside to maintain the integrity of the ANC.”
Sebakwane said the veterans’ league calls upon members of the organization to reject the attempt to bring back former public representatives who failed the test of loyalty to the movement and chose to be loyal to champions of corruption against the people’s interests.
South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) in the Ngaka Modiri Molema shared the same sentiments. SANCO regional secretary, Khumalo Molefe said he is disappointed at the level of ill-discipline demonstrated by the ANCWL. He said the league has elected to rely on some fictitious social media sources and issued a statement instead of walking to the office of the ANC Secretariat.
“In its factional and misleading statement, the ANCWL asserts that Nelson is an ANC list conference product that has produced the status quo. However, as SANCO in the Ngaka Modiri Molema rejects this blatant lapse of memory and the attempt to rewrite history by reminding the league that comrades Nelson and Lenkopane who is also the MPL are not a an outcome of the list conference that we as SANCO participated on.
“Instead, the conference produced capable comrades in Lena Miga and Eric Lansman whose names were mysteriously removed from the list and the ANCWL conveniently looked away forgetting that Miga, who is their former provincial secretary with decorated credentials is a woman,” said Molefe.
Meanwhile, the ANC in Matlosana released a media statement clobbering the ANCVL. ANC’s Tyrone Thomas branch secretary, Francois Quincy Galamadien said: “We have noted with deep regret the veiled attack against the swearing-in of comrade Nelson. The ANCVL statement smacks of cowardice and the inability to comradely address issues of concern directly.
“We challenge the veterans to produce any court outcomes and equally to produce a statement written by them as a counter against any other member of the legislature who may have faced any criminal charges post the 54th National Congress, there are none,” Galamadien said.
He said the oblique attack on Nelson is racial because she is coloured. Galamadien added that there has been no attempt to dealing with the interest of minority groups in the North West, yet corruption is selectively used to attack leaders.
The Guardian 