Durban – The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal has finalised almost 90 percent of the candidates it hopes will stand in the upcoming local government election.
But some of those that have been selected, might not get the chance to stand, Super Zuma, the party’s provincial secretary said in Durban on Tuesday.
He said that the party’s provincial executive committee (PEC) had “resolved that cases of all ANC nominated candidates who are facing serious criminal charges will be referred to the Integrity Commission”.
He went further to say that while the party respected the constitutional provision of “innocent until proven guilty”, the party needed to “jealously protect the integrity and image of our movement”.
However, when questioned as to what was considered “serious”, he declined to comment, only saying that each case would be evaluated on its merits.
He also did not reveal how many of the approximately 750 candidates selected so far would be facing the Integrity Commission. It was also not clear who actually sits on the Integrity Commission.
Zuma said that there had been disputes over candidates at 94 wards which had been subjected to the party’s appeals processes. Of those, some 50 had been resolved he said.
A number of wards have been violently contested in the past months and in Inchanga, three people were killed in a break-up between the ANC and its alliance partner, the SA Communist Party.
“You will find some pockets of areas that have some problems,” he said.
In KwaDukuza on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast, the incumbent councillor Jethro Banda was chased from Shakas Head and his house and car were torched.
In Durban’s southern area of Folweni in Ward 95, protests against the candidate that had been nominated have persisted for the past two weeks. It emerged earlier this week that the protesters torched a newly-built fire station.
“It [violent protests] is wrong. Now we have to attend to issues that have already been attended to,” he said of the infrastructure that had been burnt by protesters.
African News Agency
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.