A number of ANC councilors in the Western Cape will be fired by the end of June when the party implemented recommendations to have them removed.
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The recommendations were included in a report written by the former president Kgalema Motlanthe after looking into claims of candidate list manipulation and rule-breaking prior to the 2021 local government elections.
Ten of the 26 appeals that were filed and looked into were denied, but 16 others received recommendations for disciplinary action.
Dullah Omar, Boland, Southern Cape, and Overberg were among the province’s affected areas.
Those found guilty of manipulating the lists will be removed from their positions, Livhu Matsila, secretary of the party’s National Electoral Committee, told IOL.
‘They are illegally occupying those positions,’ he said.
Western Cape ANC convener Lerumo Kalako predicted that the region would follow the suggestions.
‘The instruction was that we must take disciplinary action against those behind the manipulations,’ said Kalako.
He claimed that the action was in keeping with the call for clean government made by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
‘Corruption starts with the manipulation of candidate lists. We must root it out,’ he added.
The community votes for three ward councillors in the Dullah Omar region, in which appeals were made, were redone in accordance with the recommendations, according to Kalako.
However, the neighborhood chose to reelect them and he said there was no need for a by-election.
A meeting to repeat the procedure was disrupted, according to Kalako and another one will need to be called.
Luvuyo Zondani, a Dullah Omar PR candidate who filed an appeal on the grounds that he was disqualified due to a disability, said he was still awaiting word on the outcome.
‘It’s frustrating to sit and wait for an outcome on how the matter was resolved,’ said Zondani.
‘I believe my disability has nothing to do with my ability to serve people.
‘The ANC should field councillors who are representative of all groups in society.’
Fikile Mbalula, the general secretary of the ANC, imposed strict deadlines for carrying out the Motlanthe recommendations.
Mbalula emphasized the urgency of completing any corrective action and disciplinary proceedings resulting from the report in a communique to provincial secretaries and coordinators.
The National Executive Committee (NEC), the highest decision-making body of the party, was also given until 22 to 23 June to receive reports from them on the status of any ongoing disciplinary proceedings.
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Picture: SANews.gov.za
