An ANC office-bearer, accused of botching the party’s candidate list registration for his region, imperilling its chances in the local government elections, could find himself in the firing line.
The SACP, ANC Women’s League and several top leaders of the ANC in the Boland, Western Cape, are calling for the office-bearer’s immediate suspension.
They say the Boland’s ANC secretary, Jonton Snyman, must bear responsibility for problems with the candidates list.
These include the failure to provide the names on the proportional representation list and the names of ward candidates and to register candidates in ANC strongholds where party members had been elected unopposed.
One of the five leaders of the Boland region said he and the others had decided to call on the ANC’s provincial executive committee to suspend Snyman.
“Through his dereliction, Snyman has handed important wards and municipalities to our opponents,” he said.
“(The) matter requires serious investigation because it involves tampering with ward candidate lists, removing candidates from the list that had been selected by branches and the communities.
“The regional secretary, as the accounting officer, could not provide answers. That is why (we) called for him to be suspended.”
Giving an example of the problems, the office-bearer said that in, Drakenstein ward 16 (Mbekweni), which the ANC had won unopposed, Snyman had failed to register the candidate.
A cursory assessment suggests that between 10 and 15 wards could be affected, seriously damaging the ANC’s chances of winning the most votes in the Langeberg, Witzenberg and Breede Valley municipalities.
The provincial council of the SACP, which has significant influence in the Western Cape, said earlier this week that “the manipulation and administrative negligence during the list process, particularly in the Boland regions, must be dealt with decisively by the ANC.”
ANC provincial secretary Faeiz Jacobs said he had received the letter from the Boland office-bearers, but he had referred them to the regional executive committee, which he said should discuss the matter.
He acknowledged that the party had also experienced problems in the Dullah Omar region, in Cape Town.
The provincial leadership was “going to all affected branches to explain, listen and, where necessary, rectify the problems identified”.
The ANC noted the position taken by the SACP, but the matter should have been discussed between them, Jacobs said.
Snyman was sent detailed questions asking him for his views on the allegations against him, and the SACP statement calling for his suspension.
He did not Snyman answer phone calls.
He responded on Facebook by posting a statement issued earlier this month by an ANC spokesman for the Boland region.
“The ANC Boland regional executive committee has noted with serious concerns the unfounded and untrue allegations that the regional secretary Jonton Snyman has been suspended by office-bearers,” stated Attwel Sithembele Dassie Mbi, head of communication and media for the Boland region.
“The statements on social media platforms that the (committee) met yesterday has no basis. To set the record straight only the regional office-bearers met with only the programme of election work as the agenda (Snyman) is not suspended.”
Snyman was suspended last year after he was found guilty by an ANC disciplinary panel which investigated complaints that he had been convicted of fraud.
He appealed and was reinstated.
Sunday Independent