Andile Lili is a man with a mission for 2016

Feebearing - Cape Town - 141215 - Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla appeared in the Bellville Magistrates Court today in connection with charges against them in connection with throwing human excrement at the Cape Town International Airport. Pictured: Andile Lili(Black jacket) leaves court at lunch. REPORTER: NATASHA PRINCE. PICTURE: WILLEM LAW

Feebearing - Cape Town - 141215 - Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla appeared in the Bellville Magistrates Court today in connection with charges against them in connection with throwing human excrement at the Cape Town International Airport. Pictured: Andile Lili(Black jacket) leaves court at lunch. REPORTER: NATASHA PRINCE. PICTURE: WILLEM LAW

Published Jul 4, 2015

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Cape Town - Cape Town politician-turned-activist Andile Lili seemed an ANC outcast. But now it’s obvious he was plotting a cunning comeback.

The results of last weekend’s ANC provincial leadership election left observers surprised, and controversial Lili was the man behind much of it.

In the past he has been dismissed, arrested and jailed for leading “poo protests” and also creating headaches for the DA.

He was also a pain for the ANC’s previous provincial executive committee, asserting an influence eventually impossible to ignore.

Last weekend, however, Lili went from rebel to provincial executive committee member.

As chairman of the Ses’khona People's Rights Movement, founded after his suspension from the provincial ANC in 2013, Lili led protesters to throw human excrement on the steps of the provincial government, demanding flush toilets for informal settlements.

Lili was also dismissed as a City of Cape Town councillor and, with his comrade Loyiso Nkohla, also briefly expelled from the provincial ANC when they repeated their poo protests. Court battles ensued to stop to their activities.

Outside the ANC and attacking its provincial leadership, he seemed to be in a no-man’s land. But in reality he was working to secure a return to politics.

But his primary aim was not election to the executive committee – rather, his aim was to ensure that former provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile was not re-elected.

Mjongile had seemed a shoo-in alongside provincial ANC chairman Marius Fransman, who did retain his position.

 

In various media interviews in the past, Lili repeatedly dismissed Mjongile and Fransman as inadequate leaders.

Lili even accused Mjongile of being behind an attack on his life, after he was shot outside his Khayelitsha home in November. Mjongile denied this.

This week Lili described how he had lobbied against Mjongile at ANC branches across the province.

“For the last four months we decided to suspend all Ses’khona programmes to make sure that we place a good leadership in the ANC, and remove Songezo,” said Lili.

“I couldn’t sleep. If I were to sleep it was only after 1am or 2am. Sometimes after 5am. It’s only now that I’m relaxing.

“I went around with my comrades and lobbied other regions, saying the only person that needed to be removed and targeted was Songezo.”

Lili said he had previously supported Mjongile, but changed tack when Mjongile ensured his expulsion from the city council, and later his temporary suspension from the ANC.

 

For his part, Mjongile had also spoken out publicly against Lili.

Over subsequent months, it became clear that Lili had support from the ANC’s national executive committee.

Former ANC provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha and other NEC members visited Lili in hospital after he was shot.

By then, the provincial ANC had distanced itself from him. There was also talk of a provincial leadership change. The knives were out.

Lili carried on building a reputation as an activist who had gone back to the trenches.

 

And then he spent the past few months lobbying others to vote for the man who eventually replaced Mjongile at the weekend: Faiez Jacobs, a Ses’khona sympathiser.

Lili said: “We put Faiez (there). People had a fear of putting their hands up (to vote for Jacobs). They were scared to raise their hands against Songezo’s group.

“There were certain people (who thought) if you go against Songezo then you might not get your feet in the council come 2016. They wanted to be councillors next year.”

Lili said they dropped their opposition to Fransman after he reached out to Ses’khona.

“Marius sat with us. He said let us try to work together even though we don’t see eye to eye.”

Ses’khona not only enjoys national executive committee support, but its public rallies also draw thousands. Lili puts its membership at “more than 500 000” in the province.

When Fransman introduced Jacobs and other newly elected leaders at a press briefing this week, he described Ses’khona a “fault line” that had been resolved.

“Ses’khona is not against the ANC… The ANC should reconnect with civil society and work with progressive NGOs. Ses’khona is such a body,” said Fransman.

“Is Andile Lili a value-add to the PEC (provincial executive committee)? Yes, there’s no question… Ses’khona is a partner to change the Western Cape from a DA to ANC government.

“No ANC branch or region must work against Ses’khona because conference resolved on that.”

Jacobs said this week that “ANC members are also Ses’khona members”.

His focus seemed more in line with Ses’khona’s views when he said the “new leadership needs to accurately articulate the concerns of our communities”.

“We can’t do it from boardrooms. We need to be grounded in our communities.”

Lili has said repeatedly that he was not interested in a leadership role in the provincial ANC, and he has stuck to that.

“For the sake of unity, I decided not to put myself forward. We had to compromise somehow... I would still be able to lead Ses’khona.”

Now that Lili has unseated his rival and secured his place at the table, he has new ambitions.

“I am not going to rest until we humiliate Mayor Patricia De Lille and the DA. We must be able to convince the people of Cape Town not to vote for the DA. Now the ANC is in good hands. We will ask our members to... unseat the DA come 2016. We are loved and respected by the community... We earned that respect. People saw that we stand for them, even if it means we must carry faeces by our hands for them. Now we want that ANC to lead the Western Cape.”

Weekend Argus

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