ANC admits to poll list mistakes

ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte with NEC member Humprey Mmemezi listen to community concerns during door to door campaigning in Rustenburg. Picture:Thabiso Thakali

ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte with NEC member Humprey Mmemezi listen to community concerns during door to door campaigning in Rustenburg. Picture:Thabiso Thakali

Published Jul 24, 2016

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Rustenburg - The ANC in the North West is already preparing for by-elections in some municipalities after next month’s poll - to correct its “mistakes” in the councillor candidate lists.

This could be interpreted as a frantic patch-up job to appease disgruntled party members in regions including Bojanala, Ngaka Modiri Molema, Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Dr Ruth Mompati. Tension has been brewing in some ANC areas in the North West since the nomination of candidate councillors was finalised.

The decision to “get to the bottom” of communities’ unhappiness was first mooted by the provincial leadership which convened meetings and announced that those who were not wanted would be forced to resign.

But the provincial ANC is facing a potential backlash at the polls with some in the ranks of its alliance partners even refusing to campaign or vote for candidates imposed on communities.

This week, Humphrey Mmemezi, the convener of ANC national executive committee deployees in the province, said the leadership has owned up and wanted to “correct the mistakes”.

“The approach here is different, unlike in other provinces where people are killing each other,” he said.

He was referring to the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal where at least 12 ANC councillor candidates have been killed in the run-up to the August 3 poll. ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte has called on Police Minister Nathi Nhleko to show leadership and stop this happening.

“He is our minister, he is an ANC minister and he cannot stand by and watch anybody die, whether they are ANC members or not,” said Duarte.

What frightens the ANC is that the killings appear to have been done in such a way that the community will be scared off voting, she added.

In the North West, there were candidate councillors who were number five on the ANC list, but for reasons unclear to most people they were suddenly in the number one spot, Mmemezi said.

“This province has decided that the situation will have to be corrected and that is the difference,” he said. “Some people in the regions have made mistakes.”

Mmemezi said the emphasis ahead of next month’s poll was on reconciliation among party members.

“When you deal with a big organisation like the ANC that has almost 70 percent support from the population, you have different people with different ways of dealing with issues. You should expect some rotten potatoes here and there.”

Mmemezi said mistakes made by a “few ANC rotten potatoes” could be costly for the party if it did not learn from them.

Cosatu chairman in Rustenburg, Maleho Gaonakala, is one of those who have broken with the tradition of the tripartite alliance by refusing to campaign for imposed ANC councillor candidates.

This is despite Cosatu’s resolution to support and vote for the ANC in the elections.

He told Independent Media that people who changed candidates’ lists to boost their friends must be punished harshly. He feared the ANC could be punished at the polls.

“If the movement is punished through the ballot and we do not perform accordingly, the people who were leading these committees that selected the candidates against the wishes of the communities must be punished,” he said.

“How can I vote for somebody who was not nominated by the majority of the community? I can’t be seen in that area campaigning for somebody who is not known because I would become counter-revolutionary.”

Gaonakala, who is also a leader of the SA Communist Party in the Bojanala region, said he was “marching with the communities”.

The mushrooming of community forums to contest elections against the ANC this time around was a sign of community dissatisfaction, he warned.

“As a leader of the alliance in Rustenburg, it is the first time I’ve seen so many political parties and forums mushrooming.

“History will teach us whether people will vote for an alternative. Before this, I could go to factories and urge workers to vote for the beloved movement and get a positive response. Not any more,” he said.

The ANC received 50 percent of the votes in Rustenburg in the 2014 national elections.

According to experts, voter turnout will be the big deciding factor in this election. Figures from the Independent Electoral Commission of SA showed there were more than 1.7 million voters registered in the North West, an increase of 200 000 voters from 2011.

There has also been an increase in the number of independent candidates in the province, now totalling 78.

Political analyst Ebrahim Fakir told Independent Media recently that historically voters who stayed away from municipal elections had been ANC supporters.

He said the fractures in the ANC were so deep that they would affect voter turnout.

“When voter turnout goes down, it benefits opposition parties who will do better on the PR seats and ward constituencies,” he said.

Fact box:

Registered voters in North West - 1 715 460

Number of municipalities - 18 local councils plus 4 district councils.

Number of political parties contesting - 31

Number of independent candidates - 78

Number of wards - 407

Number of seats available - 10 285

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Politics Bureau

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