The African National Congress’s controversial parliamentary chief whip, Mbulelo Goniwe, has been accused of using a march over land restitution in the Eastern Cape as a weapon in his battle with local party activists in Cradock.
This follows a statement by six ANC branches in Cradock, Goniwe’s hometown, demanding his expulsion from the party. In this, they complained that he had failed to support Cradock’s ANC-led local authority, and was instead rallying members of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) to support competing programmes.
The statement accused Goniwe of ”sowing division and disunity in the community of Cradock”, adding that ”this tendency might paralyse the ANC election campaign for March 1 2006 and beyond”.
Goniwe’s spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo, said the dispute had been referred to the ANC’s provincial structures. Because of this, he could not respond to the allegations.
This week, Sanco staged a march on the Cradock headquarters of the Inxuba Yethemba municipality to protest against the lack of land restitution in the province. It accused local authorities of displaying ”no regard for community developmental needs” by failing to comply with the National Land Affairs Commissioner’s order to help the community lodge land claims.
But local executive members of the party insisted the real motivation was to hit back at ANC branches over their anti-Goniwe petitition.
”He is definitely behind the march,” said the secretary general of Cradock’s zonal ANC branch, Simphiwe Notwala, who added: ”He’s playing on people’s emotions.”
Mlulami Henge, a councillor and member of the ANC’s local executive, echoed the claim that the protest was in response to the branches’ complaint that Goniwe was undermining local government.
Goniwe has significant local standing as the son of Matthew Goniwe, one of the ”Cradock Four” assassinated by security forces under apartheid. But the Cradock ANC leaders insist he is not a member of a local branch.
The statement by the branches accuses Goniwe of using Sanco and a Cradock Four Trust to run programmes in competition with the government. ”If he wants to be seen as a person who is bringing development to Cradock, he should work with the local sphere of government,” said Notwala.
Notwala said Goniwe was using the names of the widows and children of the Cradock Four to publicise the Cradock Four Trust, of which they knew nothing. Fezile Calana, a director of the trust, said the allegations were ”very much untrue.”
He said a representative from each family member was an actively participating trustee and that the trust paid tertiary education fees.
The mayor of Inxuba Yethemba, Mzimkhulu Zenzile, was less certain that the rift between ANC branches and Goniwe explained Wednesday’s protests. ”If it was a response to the press statement, it should have been directed to the ANC. There is a clear distinction between the municipality and the ANC,” he said.