Johannesburg - ANC heavyweights at the party’s Luthuli House headquarters are preparing to move into the party’s troubled provincial chapter to quell infighting which has seen party membership decline by more than 60 percent in less than three years.
In a further development, another political stand-off erupted after provincial ANC secretary Nocks Seabi instructed provincial legislature Speaker Merriam Ramadwa to vacate her office. Ramadwa is refusing to step down.
And in another separate incident, a senior ANC provincial executive member Danny Msiza is embroiled in a bitter dispute with the newly elected provincial ANC Youth League (ANCYL) whose secretary Che Selane has accused him of sponsoring a faction that lost the youth league’s elective conference.
Msiza is accused of sponsoring a court action lodged by a rival youth group led by his allies Onnica Moloi and Donald Selamolela to take the newly elected youth league leadership (led by Selane and Vincent Shoba) to court recently.
ANC national spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni-Khawe said: “It is unfortunate they are fighting publicly, through the media and even taking each other to court. The ANC has intervened in other provinces and we are going to do that in Limpopo. We have done it before and will remedy the situation.”
The ANC, which once scooped over 80 percent of the votes in Limpopo, has not only lost 60 percent of membership but confidence among members is at its lowest as officials are at each other’s throats.
According to ANC officials, Seabi is gunning for Ramadwa because she refused an order to marginalise opposition parties by not following the rules of the provincial legislature while chairing the house. As a presiding officer she feels it is illegal not to adhere to the rules.
It is rumoured within ANC circles that Seabi wants to replace her with Polly Boshielo, who swopped positions with Joe Maswanganyi about two weeks ago. Since then, Seabi is said to have been engaging Ramadwa to step down. She is however refusing to do so. A former MEC for Sports, Arts and Culture, Ramadwa, has a strong ANC background and is, according to her supporters, a popular ANC leader.
Ramadwa refused to comment this week.
“I don’t want to comment about internal matters of our organisation. It is against our rules. Call the provincial secretary because he is the right person to talk to according to protocol. I can’t comment further,” she said.
Earlier, provincial Premier Stan Mathabatha sacked MEC Rudolph Phala, Treasury, and replaced him with Rob Tooley.
This raised a lot of eyebrows. Despite Mathabatha saying he had nothing personal against Phala, ANC insiders said Phala was dismissed for criticising Mathabatha’s cabinet for failing to spend R559 million meant for human settlements during his budget speech earlier this year.
At the time, Phala said “this is highly unacceptable”.
Phala is a PEC member and a former Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) head in the province. He was praised by Monde Tom, the former provincial administrator who was deployed to rescue Limpopo when the province was put under administration. Tom and his team of administrators left the province about two months ago before in-fighting reared its ugly head again.
Tooley also served as chief executive of Limpopo Tourism and Parks and also head Scopa in the province. Phala refused to comment on the claims this week.
Both of the PEC leadership for the ANC and ANCYL are at each other’s throats as tensions grip party structures.
“We have won the Ancyl conference and the Msiza didn’t prefer us to win. We want the ANC to take disciplinary action against Msiza and his allies. We know he has sponsored Moloi and Selamolela to take us to court. We have won the elections fairly but because Msiza preferred his allies to win he decided to sponsor them to take us to court. His behaviour is un-ANC and uncomradely,” said Seabi, as he mounted a verbal attack on Msiza this week.
Msiza, who is contesting for the vacant treasury position against a fellow PEC member, Joe Mathebula, refused to comment.
Mathabatha said he is going to investigate allegations of corruption levelled against Seabi this week.
According to documents seen by the Sunday Independent, Seabi is earning two salaries. One is from Luthuli House while the second salary comes from the party’s Limpopo provincial office.
Luthuli House pays him a basic salary of R67 600 with a employer’s contribution of R4 394, funeral cover of R2 467, a car and petrol allowance of R3 500. He earns a total package of R86 111 a month, including a cellphone allowance.
However, the provincial office pays him an additional R58 715. This is now being queried.
Seabi refused to comment.
The Sunday Independent