Johannesburg - Five ANC councillors could lose their jobs by the end of this month.
This was discussed at a regional general council meeting held at the Durban City Hall last week following recommendations made in the Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma report. The report was commissioned by President Jacob Zuma.
A task team had investigated irregularities in the selection of candidates for the 2011 local government elections in 419 ANC wards countrywide, of which 11 were in KwaZulu-Natal.
The councillors are alleged to have manipulated the outcomes of the candidate lists, leading to their election.
National executive committee member Joe Phaahla addressed the 200 members, informing them about the fate of those councillors who had been fingered in the damning report.
According to a highly placed source, councillors were told they would be asked to resign as soon as ANC processes began. The source said that Phaahla indicated that these processes would be concluded by the end of February.
The five councillors implicated are Bongumusa Mkhize of KwaXimba, Bhekisisa Hlongwa of Tshelimnyama, Zanele Ndzoyiya of Sherwood/Mayville, David Mabizela of Ntuzuma and Zandile Gumede of Trenance Manor.
“Some councillors are going to lose their jobs because due processes were not followed. The ANC has within itself become a victim of corruption. But this is a cleansing process for the ANC because communities were robbed of choosing their preferred candidates,” said the source, who was at the meeting.
Another source confirmed this.
“During a cleansing phase, the ANC will have casualties. This cleansing phase will ensure that we prevent the same thing from happening in the 2016 elections.”
Provincial communication co-ordinator Senzo Mkhize confirmed that regional general council meetings were held in eThekwini and Pietermaritzburg, but denied that councillors’ jobs were on the line. “The internal processes that took place over the weekend were part of a consultation process with all stakeholders and branches. It was not a process to name and shame members. We were informing the branches about the report, which had been leaked to the media before members of the national and provincial executive committees had even seen it.”
While some of the implicated councillors said they were aware of the investigations, they were uncertain of their fate.
Hlongwa, who claimed he knew nothing about the allegations, said: “I am a member of the ANC. I grew up in the ANC and whatever the ANC decides, I will follow.”
Ndzoyiya said: “Nothing has been finalised. We haven’t been told anything about (our positions) yet. I am not sure what will happen to my job.”
Mkhize said: “The ANC wanted us to know about the report and that allegations are being investigated. All the wards were there and none were named one by one.”
Several attempts to get comment from Gumede and Mabizela were unsuccessful at the time of going to press. - Sunday Independent