John Block, the disgraced former Northern Cape transport minister, could stage a comeback and topple Premier Dipuo Peters as provincial chairperson of the African National Congress.
The Northern Cape ANC is holding its congress in three weeks’ time in Kimberley where new leadership will be elected.
Block was forced to resign as provincial ANC chairperson and from his position as provincial minister of transport and roads after he admitted to abusing taxpayers’ money to fund his extravagant taste for jazz.
The blunder cost him a potential post as Northern Cape premier. He was number one on the ANC provincial list for the April elections, and Peters was number 14. Now some regions are said to be mobilising for his return as ANC chairperson. A list, apparently circulating with the names of candidates to be appointed at the provincial congress, nominates him as chairperson, while Peters does not feature in the top five.
Block blew R22 710 of taxpayers’ money so that he and his wife, Noluthando, could stay in a five-star hotel at an ANC conference in Stellenbosch in 2002. His department was billed for a room at R3 740 a night for five nights. He also used public funds to attend the North Sea Jazz Festival and to pay for his flights, car hire and accommodation.
He admitted wrong-doing to the Sunday Times and asked for forgiveness.
After Block, the list proposes that current provincial secretary Neville Mompati become deputy chairperson and Zamane Sole become secretary. Currently Peters is acting chairperson, and agriculture and land reform provincial minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson is treasurer.
Those who oppose Block’s return as chairperson say they are concerned that he was never disciplined by the ANC, despite his admission that he violated the party’s constitution.
Block, however, is understood to have considerable support. His supporters believe he was bad-mouthed by the current provincial leadership at national office when the scandal broke last year.
They believe that he was sabotaged by his opponents, who leaked information about his lifestyle to the media and to the Democratic Alliance. Block’s critics are said to reside mainly among alliance partners the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party, who view themselves as opponents of “the wealth accumulation regime”.
What further infuriated Block’s opponents was that after his resignation, he was given a state farm as part of the province’s black economic empowerment process, while emerging black farmers were ignored.
Mompati said the organisation had decided that it would not act against Block until the auditor-general’s office had finalised its investigations.
Mompati said the congress would discuss unity in the organisation, its finances and its strategies ahead of the local government elections expected at the end of next year.