The heads of officials who failed to register a candidate for a ward by-election in the Tswaing sub-region last week must roll, the regional ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has said.

The ANCYL in the Ngaka Modiri Molema region slammed what it called a tendency where “officials sleep on duty” to the party’s detriment.

The ANC officials had failed to meet the deadline to register their candidate on April 3.

Only the DA and the APC managed to field candidates in time for the by-election set for April 24.

ANCYL regional chairperson, Alfred Nyamane, said acting provincial party secretary, Gordon Kegakilwe, should take the fall.

“Registration of candidates is the sole duty of the provincial secretary and in this case, it pains us that the acting secretary knows this responsibility full well. We fought so hard when suspended secretary (Kabelo Mataboge) failed to register candidates in Tlokwe in 2011 and in the same spirit we want the acting secretary to account,” he said.

Nyamane added that the party should not be held hostage by officials who neglect their duties and nothing is done against them.

“As the ANCYL, we are not happy at all because we wanted to take that ward from the DA and to keep the momentum in preparation for coming elections,” he said.

Provincial ANC spokesperson, Kenny Morolong, said the party leadership had launched an investigation into the latest “setback” and that the findings should be available this week.

“The provincial working committee (PWC) noted the enormity of this setback and believes that this development has serious implications on the image of the ANC which contests elections as a registered political party drawing its electoral support from all sections of South African society,” Morolong said.

He said the PWC met with all those involved in the process of registering the ANC candidates to establish grounds for non-registration.

“The PWC, among other matters, resolved to institute an investigation through an independent team which would report back within the next seven days. The leadership will also meet the affected community of Ward 14 and formally apologise for this occurrence,” he said.

Chris Hattingh, the provincial leader of the DA claimed that ongoing infighting within the ANC was manifest in the failure to register a candidate for the coming by-election. He expressed the hope that his party would retain the ward.

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