Sechaba ka’Nkosi
A high-level investigation headed by Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile into allegations that three senior provincial African National Congress members are “ANC members during the day and United Democratic Movement members by night” has run into snags.
The people who first made the allegations against the three party members have failed to provide the ANC’s Eastern Cape provincial executive council with adequate information.
The investigation was launched after a report was tabled at the Transkei regional conference by former ANC secretary Siyakholwa Mlamli in June.
It accused Nat Seratshe, Malizo Mpehle and Nancy Xatula – all members of the provincial legislature – of holding dual party membership
The only details contained in Mlamli’s report were allegations that the three were seen at a funeral of a UDM member in the Transkei, in the company of the party’s leader, Bantu Holomisa.
Seratshe and Mpehle are former exiles who enjoy respect in the ANC at a national level.
Seratshe acted as one of the party’s senior propagandists in its department of information and publicity, and also worked for the party’s now defunct Radio Freedom in Tanzania.
Mpehle had a close working relationship with ANC military structures. Xatula is a former school teacher in Qumbu who joined the ANC after its unbanning in 1990.
The three were assigned by the ANC’s provincial executive council to act as constituency leaders in the Qumbu- Tsolo sub-region of the Transkei, one of the UDM’s strongholds.
Their deployment was interpreted by ANC insiders as a move to strengthen the ANC against the UDM in the run-up to next year’s elections – and as an indication that they are held in high esteem within the party.
Their positions also earned them seats in the provincial executive committee as ex-officio members.
Stofile’s investigation has created rifts in the provincial executive committee, and sources say there is concern it could delay the party’s electioneering strategy.
Says a senior Eastern Cape ANC member: “What this really says to me is that there is nothing here beyond rumours. I am now forced to believe the organisation [ANC] may have been taken for a ride.”
The most serious concern in the top echelons of ANC structures in the province is that the matter has put the Transkei regional executive committee at loggerheads with the three MPLs.
Several meetings brokered by Stofile to heal the rifts have failed to materialise.
Reasons given are that the three refuse to attend because of their differences with the regional executive committee, and that this is an indication of the committee’s inability to organise properly.
The ANC deputy regional secretary in the Transkei, Sipho Mahlati, said a meeting with the three was scheduled for Wednesday but failed to materialise. The three could not be reached for comment.
ANC provincial secretary Humphrey Maxhegwana says the party is not worried that the UDM will pose a serious threat to it in the Transkei.
He cites the UDM’s shaky profile and that it appeals mainly to former ministers of the bantustan administration and disgruntled civil servants.
But Maxhegwana adds the ANC will not hesitate to expel any member found to be holding dual party membership.
“Our structures are still very much intact, even in areas that are perceived to be UDM strongholds. Where we have a problem is in tribal areas like Nqeleni where chiefs often abuse their powers to force people to take UDM membership,” says Maxhegwana.