/ 29 August 2009

ANC targets Mbeki ‘big fish’ in NW

The ANC in the North West province is about to wrest control from supporters of former president Thabo Mbeki and transfer it to President Jacob Zuma loyalists.

An ANC transitional task team is investigating all municipalities and acting against either mayors or municipal managers. The team is led by former ANC Youth League leader Saki Mofokeng.

An ANC report revealed earlier this year that all 25 municipalities in the North West were on the brink of collapse. The report blamed corruption, nepotism and political infighting within the party for the state of disorder in municipalities.

The Mail & Guardian has learned that former provincial executive committee (PEC) members who will soon be removed apparently include two MECs, Mahlakeng Mahlakeng (public works, transport and roads) and Boitumelo Tshwene (agriculture, conservation, environment and rural development).
Executive mayors targeted include:

  • Themba Gwabeni (Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality), who was fired more than a week ago for taking the ANC to court;
  • Manketse Tlhape (Tswaing local municipality), with her municipal manager Dakota Legwete;
  • Elizabeth Lethoko (Ditsobotla local municipality);
  • Mosa Sejosengoe (Mafikeng local municipality);
  • Boitumelo Mahlangu (Greater Taung local municipality);
  • Pinkie Diswane-Moloi (Dr Kenneth Kaunda district municipality); and
  • Matthew Wolmarans (Rustenburg local municipality).

Five of these leaders were members of the disbanded PEC, while Lethoko was there by invitation.

Mofokeng, whose position as task team coordinator is equivalent to that of a provincial secretary, denied that there was a list of targeted people who were either members of the former PEC or sympathetic to the disbanded leadership. ”We do not have that list. Our task is to build and unify the ANC,” he said. But he did not rule out the possibility of such action being taken in future. ”People who will be suspended will be people who did something wrong. Your work will tell us where you stand.”

He said his team was not going to be blackmailed by people who spread rumours about being targeted because they feared disciplinary action for non-performance.

But three sources with close ties to the task team confirmed that there was a list of former PEC members who would be removed from their positions. ”It is an overall strategy of cleansing the ANC,” said a regional leader who did not want to be named. ”We must simply get rid of them from both the ANC and government.”

The source said firing Gwabeni was the first step towards reaching other former PEC members, in particular former provincial secretary Supra Mahumapelo. ”We want him [Gwabeni] to lead us to the big fish. Supra is their godfather, we want to squeeze them to lead us to him,” said the source.

Mofokeng said his team, which he called the ”only authoritative voice” in the province, was ”open minded” and worked with all ANC members, regardless of which faction they belonged to.

”The ANC does not have a big fish,” he said. ”We do not purge people, we ask people what they are doing to serve communities according to the ANC mandate.”

This week representatives of the team visited Tswaing local municipality, where Tlhape said they were doing an audit of the functionality of the municipality. ”They said they wanted to check if there are problems because the ANC is weak in the North West,” he said.

The team investigated service-delivery protests, the relationship between ANC councillors and community structures outside the party and whether people trusted the ANC-led councils. ”Contrary to what we heard about their plans before they came here, their questions were straightforward,” said Tlhape.