Johannesburg - The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on Tuesday, slammed the African National Congress (ANC) and the SA Communist Party (SACP) for failing to attend Sasolburg's Metsimaholo council meeting, leading to the council not reaching a quorum.
"This is because the two organisations in Metsimaholo represent two factions of the ANC and thus have agreed to await the outcomes of their national conference this Sunday. It is no secret that SACP belongs to (Deputy President Cyril) Ramaphosa's campaign and the Metsimaholo ANC is with (Nkosazana) Dlamini-Zuma," the EFF said in a statement.
"This means the SACP misled the people of Metsimaholo that they are willing to remove ANC from power. Now it is clear that SACP is using their three seats not to advance the interest of the people, but to position themselves in the ANC factional battles. Their decision not to attend council together with the ANC means they are working together with the ANC.
"It also means they have not prioritised the stability of the Metsimaholo municipality, instead, they have chosen to use the people's votes for internal factional objectives."
The SACP contested the Metsimaholo November by-elections independent from the ANC for the first time, winning three seats out of the 21 councillor seats contested. It had fielded 21 candidates after a decision was taken at its elective conference to contest elections alone.
The ANC won 16 seats, the Democratic Alliance (DA) clinched 11 and eight went to the EFF. One seat each went to the African Independent Congress (AIC), Forum for Service Delivery, Metsimaholo Community Association and the Freedom Front Plus.
The EFF said it had an agreement with the SACP to work together at Metsimaholo and form a ''red government'', but that the latter has seemingly backtracked.
"Our proposal to them was to use majority opposition votes to form an EFF/SACP government that will stabilise the municipality and rebuild the lives of the poor in Metsimaholo. The SACP instead chose to go and work with the ANC to collapse today's meeting by both being absent."
The red berets warned Metsimaholo residents that the SACP could at anytime return to the ANC fold, and give power back to its alliance partner turned foe.
The Metsimaholo council meeting was postponed to Tuesday next week.