/ 10 February 2010

‘Purifying’ the party in North West

The ANC provincial task team in North West has been accused of entrenching a faction that supported Jacob Zuma for the ANC presidency and side­lining those known to have supported former president Thabo Mbeki.

The already tense situation was exacerbated this week when the task team fired six mayors for alleged poor performance. Booted out on Monday were the mayors of Moretele (Asnath Molekoa), Rustenburg (Matthew Wolmarans), Mafikeng (Mosa Sejosingoe), Lekwa Teemane (Kabelo Segalo), Greater Taung (Boitumelo Mahlangu) and Maquassi Hills (Karel Lehloo).

The ANC’s national executive committee appointed the task team to run the party in the province after the provincial executive committee was disbanded because of ­infighting, which the ruling party claimed was affecting governance.

The task team is led by former ANC Youth League national organiser Saki Mofokeng.

Mail & Guardian sources in the province painted a picture of an ANC that is in an even worse state now. In branches, regions and the province all ANC structures are being run by task teams following the disbandment of all elected leadership structures.

Former provincial executive member Thabo Mosiane blamed the task team. “What is happening is not what the national leadership sent the team to do,” he said.

“Their focus is not on building the ANC branches; they are instead interfering with government. After all the months that they spent here, where are the branches that they are supposed to build?”

But Mofokeng said: “We are still purifying membership. To rebuild the branches we had to ­disband the old branches first, because they were characterised by factions.”

Critics of the task team argue that it was a miscalculation to remove mayors on the eve of local government elections, saying the move could harm the ANC at the ballot.

But Mofokeng’s team could not “stomach” non-performers because of the fear of losing votes. “We were told that the ANC should not remove Thabo Mbeki because we will lose elections, but we gained one million more votes,” said Mofokeng.

An ANC Youth League provincial leader who is also a councillor at Dr Kenneth Kaunda district municipality told the M&G that service delivery was an excuse used by the task team to get “sympathy” from communities. But the truth was that the task team was reducing the dominance of the Mbeki-ites in both the party and government.

The leader said: “They know that people are desperate for services: whenever you speak about service delivery the poor people will listen. The reality is that they fear that these mayors will mobilise resources to bring the disbanded provincial executive committee back.”

Mofokeng denied that the team was purging those aligned to the former provincial executive and said the citizens of North West were happy with the team’s job.

“In fact they are saying [the dismissals are] long overdue. If they were not happy there would have been massive unrest.”

Mofokeng acknowledged that unity had not yet been achieved and said that building it was “a process”.

“We have brought ANC members under one roof. They are now working together and they manage their differences internally instead of chopping one another’s heads off, like they used to.”

The task team was mandated to convene a provincial elective conference within nine months of its appointment as stipulated by the ANC constitution. This falls due at the end of May, but there are fears the conference might be held later. Not a single branch has held a general meeting or elected delegates to the provincial conference.

“If we do not have branches, how can we go to conference?” asked a second youth league leader.

But Mofokeng is confident that the province will hold the conference before the end of his team’s term, most likely by May.

The task team has now presided over the departure of eight mayors. Former provincial executive member Themba Gwabeni was sacked as the mayor of Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality last year and China Dodovu resigned from Matlosana three weeks ago. Of the mayors who have been sacked so far, three are former provincial executive members.

The speaker of Greater Taung municipality, Kgakgamatso Morwagaashwe, who was also dismissed, was also a member of the provincial executive.

The M&G understands that the task team plans further sackings in what is widely known as “phase two” of the purge in the province.