Johannesburg - A disgruntled DA ward councillor has spilt the beans on how party officials he claimed belonged to the Koh-I-Noor Lodge of Freemasons allegedly rigged the candidates selection process for the 2016 municipal elections, giving preference to their wives, girlfriends and friends.
And this had rendered the whole process invalid, according to Alexander Willem Frederik Middelberg, Tshwane’s ward 91 councillor and shadow finance member of the mayoral committee.
In an internal appeal to DA federal executive chairman, James Selfe and federal legal commission (FLC) chairwoman Glynnis Breytenbach, which The Star has seen, Middelberg complains about his “irregular placement” on the proportional representation (PR) list.
“I have been placed in an electable position of the PR list at position 36. I appeal this placement on the list for the reason that it does not fairly represent my scores in comparison with those placed above me on the list and because I know that my scores actually achieved together with any legitimately made adjustments should see me placed at the top of the list following only the (Tshwane) mayoral candidate (Solly Msimanga).”
The irregular placement, he said, was the result of “numerous travesties that adversely affect me and any number of deserving aspirant candidates who would have... qualified for appointment as ward councillors or their placement on the list in better positions than they occupy now”.
He dismissed all the candidate lists, both for ward and PR, for the hotly contested Tshwane metro as invalid.
Proper procedures were also not followed in the appointment of the selection panel, which Middelberg claimed was infiltrated by DA officials who are members of the Koh-I-Noor Lodge of Freemasons. This, Middelberg added, had outed Msimanga, among other party officials, as one of the secret society’s members.
Msimanga hit back, saying he was not a member of any secret society or clique. He dismissed the allegations.
In the appeal, Middelberg wrote: “For the record, every known member of the Koh-I-Noor Lodge, in fact every known Freemason, who was an aspirant candidate and their wives or girlfriends who were aspirant candidates have been placed in the Top 20 of the proportional representation list or were given a safe ward.”
Contacted for comment yesterday, Middelberg said he stood by everything he’d said in the appeal. He had not yet received any response from the DA, he said, adding he was now consulting his legal representatives to have the whole candidate selection process redone.
Selfe told The Star that the matter had been referred to the FLC; and Breytenbach said: “I make nothing of his (Middelberg) allegations. A panel has been constituted to deal with all the appeals and I’m not sure if his appeal has been deliberated on.”
Breytenbach said she would provide information once the matter had been dealt with.
Meanwhile, the DA has launched a new mobile “Activist App” to mobilise voters before the local government elections.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said the app puts the party at the “cutting edge of technology” in an election that he said would be the most hard-fought and closest in democratic South Africa's history.
Maimane said: “If you have a smartphone, you can be an activist for the DA. It puts us in a space where we can compete with any political party.”
The app allows users to register as “activists” for the DA. Users can learn about the party, donate to the DA, check voter registrations, sign up to receive DA newsletters and recruit other people to join. The app is available online at my.da.org.za
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The Star