ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe’s letter asking provincial secretaries to “kindly effect” the national executive committee’s decision to discipline ruling party members who work for other parties has claimed 18 victims in less than a week.
Just two days after the letter was delivered, 10 councillors from the Greater Taung municipality in the North West were expelled and another eight from three municipalities in the Free State also received marching orders.
Mantashe’s letter was used to fast-track the expulsions, sidestepping the steps spelt out in the ANC constitution for disciplinary measures against a party member.
Section 25 of the ANC constitution says disciplinary action can be taken against a member for “acting on behalf of or in collaboration with a political organisation or party other than an organisation or party in alliance with the ANC”, but that anyone facing disciplinary proceedings should receive “written notice of any hearing and of the basic allegations and charges against him or her and be afforded a reasonable opportunity to make his or her defence”.
The Taung councillors were expelled for voting with the opposition United Christian Democratic Party and an independent councillor to suspend the municipal mayor, Boitumelo Mahlangu, and the municipality’s speaker, Kgakgamatso Morwagaashwe. The two were accused of incompetence, taking decisions without proper consultation with the executive committee and being authoritarian.
The secretary of the ANC’s Bophirima region, Mongezi Tsenca, said the regional executive committee used the second point of Mantashe’s letter to expel the councillors. It read: “Equally ANC members who work for any other party in opposition to the ANC should be treated the same, that is, as having expelled themselves.”
Tsenca said the party had enough evidence that warranted the councillors’ expulsion. “They petitioned the speaker together with the opposition; it’s clear they’re working against the structure of the ANC in the region,” he said.
Tsenca insisted that the regional executive committee did nothing wrong by not giving the councillors an opportunity to defend themselves. “If you look at that Mantashe letter it doesn’t say anything about following procedures; it just says councillors have automatically expelled themselves.”
The Free State expulsions were carried out in the same way. Provincial secretary Sibongile Besane said there was no need to take the councillors through disciplinary procedures because Mantashe’s letter went straight to the point about members who work for other parties expelling themselves.
“These people have been campaigning openly for other parties, they wear T-shirts of opposition parties and they go to their rallies,” said Besane. The “opposition party” in question is the Congress of the People (Cope).
However, the ANC’s North West provincial executive committee (PEC) disagrees with expulsions without due procedure.
Provincial secretary Supra Mahumapelo said the PEC has requested the regional leadership to reinstate the expelled councillors and restart the disciplinary process, because “what they did is illegal. Even if they have hard evidence, due process should be followed.”
The expelled councillors say they do not recognise their expulsions and will continue to do their work for the municipality. “We feel everything that we’ve done was done in the interests of the people we represent,” said one of them, Mavis Kgosieng.
Another expelled councillor, Itumeleng Makgalemane, said he does not see anything wrong with voting with the opposition because “there’s no ANC decisions and opposition decisions. It’s a government decision, because we’re all governing the municipality.”