The tripartite alliance of the ruling African National Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party in the North West is in tatters ahead of the municipal elections, Cosatu said on Wednesday.
”As a result of Cosatu and the SACP in North West being marginalised from the alliance processes of drawing up candidate lists for the local government elections, the alliance in the province is in tatters,” said Cosatu provincial secretary Solly Phetoe.
Phetoe said the ANC in the province had invited Cosatu to send a representative to the provincial list committee meeting in September where choosing candidates for the March 1 elections was to be discussed.
”The provincial working committee subsequently decided that no representatives of Cosatu or the SACP were needed at the meeting and the invitation was rescinded,” he said.
Cosatu and the SACP have repeatedly contacted the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) to resolve the situation, but to no avail, said Phetoe.
The two organisations are to hold a joint press briefing in the province on Thursday to outline their grievances and appeal once more to the NEC for an intervention.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) election timetable, political parties and independent candidates are to inform the IEC by Thursday January 19 of their intention to participate in the elections.
That is also the deadline for nomination of ward and party candidates and for the payment of deposits to contest the elections. By January 30, the IEC will have compiled and certified a list of the participants and parties contesting the elections.
Phetoe said the SACP and Cosatu remain committed to the alliance and want to be part of the celebrations of an ANC victory.
”We do want to celebrate an ANC victory as members of the alliance, but we feel that the ANC’s national principles of gender and demographic representation are not being adhered to in the North West,” he said.
”There have also been allegations circulating since last year that supporters of [former North West premier] comrade Popo Molefe are not being included in the candidate lists.
”There is a five-page document doing the rounds which proposes ‘the eradication of Popo’s leaders’. Its author’s name is not written on it and nobody is claiming responsibility for writing it.”
Phetoe said he first saw the document in early January and does not know why anyone would want to exclude Molefe’s supporters from the candidate lists.
It is also alleged that supporters of former deputy president Jacob Zuma are being excluded from the lists.
”The treasurer of the SACP, Miss Grace Pampiri, has said she was excluded from the candidate list because she was part of the group of supporters of comrade Zuma at the court in Durban last year,” said Phetoe.
Zuma has been a constant source of division within the alliance since the Durban High Court found a ”generally corrupt” relationship existed between Zuma and his financial adviser Schabir Shaik.
Zuma was subsequently relieved of his position as deputy president of the country.
The ANC’s spokesperson for the North West, Sam Mokaila, could not be reached for comment. — Sapa