The ANC has threatened its North West interim provincial coordinator Hlomane Chauke with dismissal for allegedly blocking all attempts by the party's regional bodies to remove all candidates who were apparently fraudulently nominated for the upcoming local government elections.
The threats to Chauke came after various ANC regions and branches in that province wrote several complaints to the head of the ANC electoral committee, Kgalema Motlanthe, and ANC’s deputy secretary general, Jessie Duarte, complaining about alleged irregularities in the nomination of candidates in four regions of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, Bojanala and Ngaka Modiri Molema.
In their complaints, they accused some members of the ANC inter-provincial committee under Chauke of being instrumental in the removal of their candidates who were elected in community meetings in favour of those apparently known and related to IPC members.
Tempers flared outside Luthuli House on August 22, when members of the Moretele sub-region in Hammanskraal and surrounding areas marched to the ANC headquarters to voice their complaints ahead of the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) initial registration deadline of August 23.
After the IEC agreed to open the registration following the Constitutional Court’s refusal to extend elections until February next year - that provided a glimmer of hope for hundreds of aggrieved ANC members in the province.
The aggrieved members were summoned to appear before the provincial liaison committee (PLC) and the IPC in which they gave a detailed account of irregularities in the appointment of candidates.
On September 8 Motlanthe and Duarte visited the North West to consolidate a final report on the irregularities and issued an instruction that the provincial electoral committee should reinstate all those candidates who were removed illegally but it was not to be.
The aggrieved members lost hope of any redress the next year, after Chauke wrote a letter to all regions saying: “The electoral committee (Motlanthe’s committee) resolved there will be no re-run of candidates selection process due to time constraints which must be complied with by all the province on the 11th September 2021.
All outstanding disputes will be attended to after the 2021 local government elections.
Chauke further said: “The office of the ANC IPC NW requested that regional leadership must comply with the electoral committee resolution.”
This, however, irked Motlanthe and he laid a formal complaint with the ANC top leadership
Angry about the contents of the letter, Duarte wrote to Chauke on Monday this week, informing him that Motlanthe had laid a complaint with regard to his September 9 letter, saying Motlanthe was of view that his letter was a misrepresentation of the electoral committee, IPC and PLC meeting held on September 8.
“In view of this, I am writing to officially warn you that if there are any more mishaps, misrepresentation or failure to follow guidelines, we will have no choice but to suspend you as IPC coordinator of the North West,” Duarte wrote.
Political Bureau