Pretoria - Tensions between ANC factions in Stinkwater, north of Pretoria, continue to simmer with party members attacked on Monday night.
Shots were fired into the home of the Tshwane MMC for corporate services, Thembi Mmoko, and her son had to seek refuge in a shop owned by his father. One man was hit and is reportedly in critical condition in hospital.
The MMC’s son, Vincent Mmoko, said the feud was rooted in the hotly contested leadership struggle in Ward 95. He said he and other members of the ruling party had found themselves in the middle of it.
The 44-year-old said he was standing in the yard with a friend when about 30 men fired shots at them.
“My friend, who is a metro police officer, used his service pistol to fire back at them. We tried to run away, but there was another group waiting for us on the other side.
“That was when I hid in my father’s store while they smashed my car and the windows of our house,” said Mmoko.
Two weeks ago, ANC members were infuriated at a bi-annual branch meeting when MMC for sports and recreation Nozipho Tyobeka-Makeke, who was overseeing proceedings, allegedly left with a list of members who had voted for a candidate.
Tyobeka-Makeke was apparently unhappy with the results, they claimed. An ANC member in the ward, who opted to remain anonymous, told the Pretoria News that tensions had been high since then.
“We were told that one of the party’s provincial executive committee would come and oversee the next meeting this past weekend. The meeting was intended at electing members to occupy the branch executive committee. However, no one arrived,” he said.
Mmoko, as a senior member of the party, was then asked to officiate at the meeting and everything went well. But on Monday after another meeting which did not go well, a van with armed men arrived.
The men allegedly said there would be bloodshed when they returned in the evening.
Party members said when they left the meeting they heard gunshots in the township. They found about 30 men at Mmoko’s house.
ANC Tshwane regional spokesman Tebogo Joala denied the violence was related to the ruling party.
“The incident of the man who was injured and the violence has nothing to do with the ANC,” he said.
He added that the matter of the shooting was cloaked under a number of allegations that he couldn't comment on.
Pretoria News