THE Mpumalanga town of Witbank’s entire city council was fired during a surprise coup by the local African National Congress (ANC) branch last week when an internal power struggle erupted into public mudslinging. ANC branch chairman in Witbank, David Maloma, fired all 11 party members on the council after accusing them of overlooking local ANC leaders to irregularly appoint an outsider as the city’s new town clerk. Amongst those fired were Witbank mayor Grace van Castle and deputy mayor Ezekiel Nkosi. Maloma also expelled Van Castle from the ANC for life as well as banning a number of other councillors from the party for up to three years. The putsch forced the ANC provincial executive committee to rush to Witbank on Thursday to overrule the dismissals and launch its own probe into the bitter infighting between the ANC branch and the party’s delegated council representative. “The branch was totally out of order. It was obviously a coup attempt and we had to step in to point out it was unconstitutional. Only the national executive has the power to discipline ANC members,” said provincial ANC spokesman, Jackson Mthembu.