Pretoria An ANC branch in Tshwane has broken ranks and has called for the regional structure led by Kgosientso Ramokgopa to be dissolved with immediate effect.
Leaders of Silas Mashiya branch in Zithobeni township in Bronkhorstspruit hosted a media briefing on Saturday at which they demanded an early elective conference to be held to vote for a new leadership.
They accused the regional and provincial leaders of costing the party votes during the recent municipal polls.
They also pointed fingers at the regional leaders for tampering with the nomination list process of ward councillors before the municipal elections.
Regional secretary Paul Mojapelo was singled out for allegedly removing the name of their preferred ward candidate Jonas Masombuka from the list and replacing it with Nomvula Mathenjwa.
Mojapelo declined to comment when contacted about the allegations levelled against him.
He also refused to react to the accusation that the regional structure had cost the ANC votes in the region.
Former ward councillor Solomon Phiri said the branch had exhausted in vain all avenues within the party to raise their disappointments about the list process.
“We have been to Luthuli House where we met (ANC) deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte to present our case,” he said.
Duarte had asked them to go into the elections and promised that the matter would be dealt with afterwards, he said.
Phiri said the branch demanded that the ANC national executive committee review the process of the ward councillor nomination to deal with “the mess that was created”.
“We call on the ANC to listen to people on the ground. We have lost the capital city because of the arrogance of the regional leadership.”
Committee member Vusi Mabena said their last resort would be to embark on a mission to mobilise other branches to act against both the regional structure and the provincial executive committees.
Mabena said the ANC had collapsed in the hands of the current ANC leadership because of the name-switching of ward councillor candidates on the nomination list. About 25 branches in the region had been affected, he said.
“We are not an opposition in the ANC, but the leadership of the ANC has cost us a lot,” he said.
He accused the people who had cost the ANC votes of wanting to bring in another Zuma problem by having Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the next ANC president.
“We want to be the first branch to send a message to other branches that come 2017 we would have a new president,” Mabena said.
To the provincial structure, he said: “Gauteng ANC has collapsed in your hands and please make way for others.”
According to him, the ANC superior structures wanted to relegate “our roles to the politics of doing recruitment and holding branch meetings”.
Branch chairperson Michael Mashigo said other branches already shared the same sentiment and it was a matter of lobbying for more support.
“As comrades we are not politicking in one place. We are certain about the numbers. We have eight branches already on our side and in Mamelodi we have five branches. We are driving around; we don’t sleep,” he said.
Mashigo said those who tampered with the list couldn’t explain reasons behind the changing of the ward candidates' lists.
Pretoria News