Johannesburg - A showdown is looming between the ANC Youth League in Limpopo and provincial ANC leaders for control of the province's richest municipality, Greater Tubatse.
The league fired the opening salvo this week calling on Luthuli House to suspend and discipline chairperson and Limpopo Premier, Stan Mathabatha for forcing the party’s mayoral candidate on the organisation.
It alleged the PEC had chosen ANCYL chairperson, Vincent Shoba to head the municipality which houses 17 multi-billion rand mining operations. But Mathabatha had unilaterally announced the name of little known Chorus Phokane.
A sub-region secretary in Tubatse/Fetakgomo, Phokane has received the backing of PEC members who told Independent Media that the claim by the ANCYL that the entire structure was taken by surprise when Mathabatha called him onto the stage with other mayoral candidates at a rally last Sunday was false. Instead, two senior ANC leaders in the province accused the league of “greed”, alleging that their moves were nothing but a desperate attempt to muscle into Tubatse for financial gain.
“It’s all about themselves. They want opportunities to make themselves rich through Tubatse. The chairperson is the stumbling block,” said a leader who did not want to be named.
But the youth league has also leveled this very same allegation against its opponents.
“It is very dangerous to have leaders who take mandate from their own pockets, because such leaders have the capacity to mislead the youth of our province. It is a dangerous element which the ANCYL will continue to fight against to ensure full youth representation in our province,” it said in a statement issue this week.
Tubatse municipality has recorded good growth in recent years as mining houses flocked to the area to take advantage of its mineral deposits. But its residents are among the poorest in the country. Despite being home to some of the world’s leading mining companies, it has failed to generate an alternative economy to mining.
Even with new developments such as shopping centres, a casino and a hotel at its main town, Burgersfort, unemployment in the municipality remains at 50%, affecting mainly young people.
Tubatse is in dire need of infrastructural development, with some communities still reliant on rivers and wells for water, whoever ends up victor would have to fix this problem and many others which led to the municipality’s low ranking by Good Governance Africa.
The research and advocacy group rated Greater Tubatse and Greater Taung in the North West at the bottom of the worst performing municipalities.
It is also engulfed by maladministration and reports of corruption.
Control over Tubatse would undoubtedly open doors to a new network of patronage. It will likely emerge as Limpopo's most important municipality after its amalgamation with Fetakgomo, which also has mineral treasures.
But ANCYL secretary in the province, Che Selane insisted their interest in Tubatse was not linked to its economic potential, but their passion for much needed innovation to turn the municipality around.
“Our interest in Tubatse is about capacity, skills, somebody who understands issues of local government. We want somebody who is energetic, who can turn around that municipality to respond to the socio-economic demands of the masses of our people. It’s for that reason we are saying Shoba must go there, he is still young, he understands the challenges facing the people of SA. He is capable to lead there, more than the rest.”
The league has also challenged Mathabatha to appoint Shoba to meet their resolution to have 20% youth representation among candidates for the upcoming local government elections.
A PEC member who did not want to be named questioned why if that was the case the only municipality they had interest in was Tubatse. Limpopo has 24 other municipalities in 5 districts. The PEC member rubbished the league's assertion that Shoba was best suited for the top post, pointing out that a former fire fighter could not possibly possess the required skills to run a municipality well on the way to becoming SA’s new platinum city.
The PEC members said Shoba was found to lack experience to handle the complex deployment, while Phokwane, a former teacher was said to have “contributed to provincial strategies” while serving in his region, making him the better candidate.
The Democratic Alliance in the province has also capitalised on the crisis, stepping up to promise a turnaround strategy within the municipality to rid it of patronage.
Despite the kind of damage the move by the ANCYL might have on the party’s electioneering in Limpopo, the league said it was not backing down from its claims and call for action against Mathabatha. This, even after the PEC members’ revelations that Phokwane was approved by the committee and ratified at Luthuli House.
“We are raising this thing now so that even after the elections the decision should be taken, people must start to take the organisation seriously. The problem is when the decision of the ANC is being undermined. Organisationally, no one has the right to pronounce something that the collective is not informed about. The premier just talked about it, and we were surprised why is premier just pronounced without us being informed,” Selane said.
The ANC has had its hands full putting out fires since the announcement of its local government candidates, as its members across the country protest the exclusion of their preferred candidates.
The party could not be reached to comment on the matter in Limpopo, while the provincial office said it was dealing with the matter internally.
Labour Bureau