Johannesburg - The Congress of the People in Nelson Mandela Bay is in a crisis following a national leadership decision to “impose a political novice” to serve in mayor Athol Trollip’s mayoral committee.
Now, Khwezi Ntshanyana, the former Cope councillor and long-serving regional chairman, who ran as a mayoral candidate, is set to challenge the matter in court.
Speaking to Independent Media on Thursday, Ntshanyana argued that councillor Siyasanga Sijadu (25) the head of sports, recreation, arts and culture, was not eligible to occupy the only Cope seat in council.
“The person who’s allowed to occupy the seat is the mayoral candidate or any candidate that acquired the highest votes, and in this case that’s Nomonde Hobeni who stood as ward 43 candidate,” he said.
The explanation, he said, was underpinned by a party resolution adopted in June, which was to be applicable to all municipal councils where they got seats.
Sijadu was made Cope’s acting regional secretary after councillor Rano Kayser left the position for the DA, where he now serves as the head of roads and transport in council.
Ntshanyana is crying foul that the proportional representation list was manipulated to favour Sijadu, saying the list was compiled by her as acting secretary.
“I should be serving in council by virtue of being the mayoral candidate. Sijadu clearly had a long-term agenda of destabilising that. She must do the honourable thing and resign so that a mayoral candidate occupies her seat,” said Ntshanyana.
He described Sijadu as a “political novice” and a “young girl” that must be removed from her council position, which comes with a salary of almost R1 million per annum.
The Cope regional structure was shocked when national spokesman Dennis Bloem confirmed Sijadu as a duly elected councillor, said Ntshanyana. “The national leadership came down (to metro guns blazing, saying Sijadu is a councillor and they have confidence in her. But they must remove this young girl. She was neither a mayoral candidate nor the person who received the highest votes, as per the party resolution.”
Ntshanyana was adamant that they were not undermining the coalition agreement between Cope and other smaller parties that saw the DA taking over the Eastern Cape metro after the municipal elections last month.
This after Cope supporters protested outside the council chambers in Military Road during a council sitting in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday.
“Cope members are saying they worked very hard without food, T-shirts, posters or flyers during the election campaign, and are surprised to see Sijadu being imposed on them.
This is a very ugly process. We thought we would be building the party now and work on programmes of taking Cope forward, but we are busy fighting,” said Ntshanyana, who has denied allegations he clandestinely entered into coalition discussions with the ANC, without the national leadership’s knowledge.
He said he shared in the “frustrations of the masses on the ground, who feel hard done by the process and want this young girl gone. The members are prepared to go to court to challenge the matter. Sijadu no longer attends regional and general meetings. She doesn’t want to cooperate with the regional leadership”.
When contacted for comment, Sijadu referred all questions to Bloem, who shielded the national leadership from any criticism. He said party processes were followed “thoroughly” regarding Sijadu's controversial election into council. “Her name was recommended by the provincial structure and national merely endorsed it. We didn't impose Sijadu on them,” said Bloem.
He called on aggrieved members to write to national so that their grievances could be addressed. “We support Sijadu as she was decided by the province and endorsed by national,” he added.