Pretoria - ANC Gauteng provincial executive committee (PEC) member, Dolly Ledwaba, has been fingered in the vote-rigging allegations made by some party members in Pretoria’s Ward 33 in Soshanguve
Ledwaba was accused of having manipulated the party’s nomination list to have her daughter, Lerato Aphane, as a candidate to contest for the position of councillor during the upcoming municipal polls.
Aggrieved members said she was not supposed to “interfere” in the nomination process as a member of the PEC.
Speaking on their behalf, Swazi Mbokane said Ledwaba had an interest to let her daughter become a councillor after her estranged son-in-law Isaac Aphane, who is an outgoing councillor.
“This PEC member was also a councillor in the same ward. Public participation did not take place. We are in a monarchy, where they are using members of the ANC to fight a divorce of the daughter of the PEC member’s daughter with her son-in-law,” Mbokane said.
She said the branch members lodged a dispute with the ANC regional office, but their appeal fell on deaf ears.
Mbokane warned the ANC to guard against the possibility of the repeat of the violence which broke out before the 2016 local government elections. She said residents were fed up because there was no public participation held.
Ledwaba, who previously served as a ward councillor for two terms and a PR councillor for a term, was accused of running a “monarchy” in the ward.
After she relinquished her position, her son-in-law took over the reins, and now her daughter is tipped to become the next councillor. Contacted for comment, Ledwaba flatly denied that she interfered, saying she attended the branch general meeting as a member in “good standing”.
She conceded that her daughter would be standing as a party candidate but quashed claims of her running “a monarchy” in the ward
“From the Walter Sisulus and from all that you can name, who are no more today, their kids are still working for this organisation. Why do they have a problem with me?” she asked.
Ledwaba said “people must acquire political education to understand the party constitution that says “every member has the right to stand, as long as they are members in good standing”. She emphasised that “each and every person in my family as an ANC member can stand for any position”.
“My kids and my family are members in good standing. Therefore nothing can stop them from participating in all processes of this organisation. Whoever is alleging that I did that, let them take me to the highest court of the country because I am not the ANC. I am Dolly Ledwaba and I don’t have any power to manipulate or do whatever,” Ledwaba said.
The dispute of the outcomes of the councillors’ nomination list in Ward 33 was made after some Tshwane branch members in Hammanskraal, Nellmapius and Soshanguve yesterday embarked on a protest outside the ANC regional offices in Arcadia, where they barricaded the Belvedere street with rubbish.
In a video circulating on social media, angry members can be heard calling out the regional secretary Eugene “Bonzo” Modise, accusing him of running the ANC office to the ground. They alleged that there had been rigging of votes during the process to nominate party candidates to contest for positions.
In Ward 27, the community expressed unhappiness about one of their selected candidates Jacob Pila, who was allegedly not voted at the branch general meeting but claimed he was nominated by the community.
Pretoria News