Picture: The ANC members during a rally
By OBAKENG MAJE
The ANC Chairperson in North West, Nono Maloyi said they will implement the long-awaited report over manipulation of 2021 councillors selection lists. In 2021 Local Government Elections (LGE), some ANC councillors were ‘parachuted’ to the positions over preferred candidates elected by communities.
This caused an uproar amongst disgruntled ANC members across all four regions in the North West, whose names were ‘unduly’ removed from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) selection list. The matter was escalated to the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) for investigation.
The ANC called all councillors, who were ‘unduly’ elected to substantiate their nominations. Initially, the disgruntled ANC members called for the reinstatement of 155 councillor candidates, but according to the letter, only 27 disputes were processed.
The investigative report compiled by the former president, Kgalema Motlanthe showed that the affected wards in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati region were ward 14, 2, 18, 6, 12, 15, 23, ward 2 in Mamusa and ward 4 in Lekwa-Teemane. The report says tree wards such as ward 14 and 18 in Taung and ward 2 in Mamusa were marred by the disruptions of Branch General Meetings (BGMs) and community meetings took place in six wards such as ward 2, 6, 12, 15, 23 in Taung, while ward 4 in Lekwa-Teemane.
“In ward 2 in the Greater Taung Local Municipality, three consecutive BGMs failed since they could not nominate candidates due to disruptions. The community meeting was convened on 22 August 2021.
“There are four Voting Districts (VDs) in the ward and voting was not done in three of the four VDs. The ward has four villages, which have one VD each. Pitso Seepamere was a deployee and nominations and voting took place only at Thusong Centre VD,” says the report.
It says the former councillor, Toloki Tlhaganyane was violent whilst Nelson Tlhalogang appeared to be drunk. The report says the meeting was disrupted by a group of people wherein knives were drawn to intimidate others.
“Buti Maape allegedly took the ballot box and gave it to Tshepo Monyaki, who left with the box. The pair handed the box over to Nelson Tlhalogang and switched off the lights at the venue. Three comrades burnt the ballot papers in the box before they could be counted, and the meeting collapsed as a result.
“At the end, there was no candidate elected. Tumo Tabe was later called to submit his documents for registration at the IEC. We recommend that, the PEC and REC must institute disciplinary action against Maape, Monyake and Tlhalogang for allegedly disrupting meetings and burning the ballot boxes,” it says.
Meanwhile, Maloyi said: “The Motlanthe report was presented to the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) with recommendations and the NEC adopted it. Now, that means there are no more recommendations, but decisions. We are going to implement that report without fail and we have already started.
“However, last weekend we had to put it in abeyance due to voters’ registration. Now, we will be proceeding with the implementation because the voters’ registration weekend is over. We are implementing that report in full to the latter without any fail.”
The Guardian 