Durban - The heads of some ANC councillors who were irregularly or fraudulently nominated to stand as candidates for the 2011 local government elections would roll, the party vowed on Tuesday.
Addressing a rally in Richmond, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party would fully implement the recommendations of the Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma task team into irregularities and manipulation of the nomination processes before the elections.
President Jacob Zuma established the task team to probe widespread allegations that some councillors had been improperly selected.
Headed by the former home affairs minister, who is now the chairwoman of the AU Commission, the task team found that at least 11 ANC councillors in KwaZulu-Natal had been improperly selected.
Mantashe was the first high-ranking ANC leader to pronounce on the way forward.
“The report is now before the national executive committee and we are looking at it. If you were irregularly elected, we will deal with you. If we find short cuts in the nominations… and those who were improperly nominated, we will get rid of them. Those who committed fraud, we will give them to the police to deal with them,” he said to applause.
Dlamini Zuma recommended that in instances in which the nomination process was manipulated, it should be redone – which could mean some serving councillors losing their seats if they were not re-nominated.
Among top ANC councillors who face action are eThekwini executive committee member Zandile Gumede, a powerful councillor who has faced demonstrations against her candidacy by residents. She is the chairwoman of the safety and social services committee. Complaints include that she did not live in ward 53, which she represented, but in ward 48.
The report also named the chairman of the powerful uMgungundlovu ANC region, Alpha Shelembe, saying that he had allegedly “manipulated” the list compilation processes in Msunduzi in favour of his personal assistant. Shelembe is the former Speaker of Msunduzi, who was part of the council team that ran the municipality into the ground.
He faces charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering. - The Mercury