Stanley Mogoba, president of the Pan Africanist Congress, has dissolved the Limpopo provincial executive committee (PEC), the power base of provincial chairperson Maxwell Nemadzhivhanani, his main rival for the party’s presidency.
Mogoba took the step after a security guard beat a man who protested against Nemadzhivhanani at a meeting that had been called last month to rectify administration problems that had led to the nullification of the PAC’s congress last year.
The meeting was one of many being held nationally by an audit committee to validate delegates for the forthcoming June congress.
”Maxwell came to the meeting to give his welcoming address. He didn’t want to stay because he was a candidate at the last congress and still stands as candidate for the June congress,” said Jabhi Ligege, secretary of the Limpopo executive.
”He went home … [but] towards the end of the meeting, the secretary of the Bushbuckridge region [Mishack Sibuyi] started uttering statements that he didn’t want Maxwell as the Limpopo chairman.
”He also said that Maxwell was never around when they needed him and … that he was eating money [meant] for constituencies and said that he didn’t want the PEC. [KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Joe] Mkhwanazi, who is part of the audit committee, tried to explain to him why Maxwell wasn’t there.
”After the meeting the security guard confronted the man [Sibuyi] about his behaviour. He was arrogant. The two security guards hit him with fists … people from his region [joined the fight until] somebody called them to order,” Ligege said.
The Bushbuckridge region alleges that the security guards are cadres from the PAC’s erstwhile military wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army, and that Nemadzhivhanani had sent them to teach Sibuyi a lesson.
Mogoba sent a letter to the PEC this week saying it had been dissolved with immediate effect for ”constant infighting that resulted in the PEC’s failing to perform its functions”.
A second letter informed Nemadzhivhanani that he was being investigated on ”serious allegations” brought against him by the audit committee and Limpopo regions.
Themba Godi, who has taken over Nemadzhivhanani’s seat as Limpopo chairperson, concedes that there have been administrative problems in the province and that its leaders have lacked focus.
”In the past two years the PAC’s efforts have just been wasted in this province. The regional leadership has been doing fantastic work, it’s the provincial leadership that’s been pulling them down,” he said.
Ligege said that Mogoba wanted to eliminate Nemadzhivhanani as a candidate for the presidency so Mogoba could get the Limpopo chairperson’s support for his re-election.
”Mogoba realises he’s losing the presidential bid,” Nemadzhivhanani said. ”He wants to move me from the presidential campaign and wants to extend his political life.”
”Mogoba is desperate to hang on to his leadership and is removing everybody that he sees as a stumbling block. We wanted to impeach him after the Patricia [de Lille] saga and now he’s just creating more grounds for us to do it. He must be removed before congress.”