Fury over the African National Congress’s decision to relocate the Moutse district from Mpumalanga to Limpopo has driven all 11 South African Communist Party members to stand as independent ward candidates in the local government elections.
The decision conflicts with the SACP’s national decision to support the ANC in the elections.
Residents expressed their disgust at the incorporation decision and told the Mail & Guardian they would resist the move to the bitter end. ANC posters have been torn down and Moutse is understood to have become a no-go area for the party’s campaigners.
Moutse SACP district chairperson Mothiba Rampisa said he and 10 other SACP members were standing as independent candidates and mobilising the community to resist Moutse’s incorporation into Limpopo province.
Rampisa said threats by the SACP’s Limpopo secretary, Justice Piitso, to terminate the membership of all who opted to stand as independents did not worry him.
”If they want to expel us, let them do it. The alliance should not survive at our expense. If the alliance breaks, it breaks and we say halala [congratulations]! We are going to stand as the community of Moutse, not the SACP, so that our outcry about incorporation is heard,” Rampisa says.
He complained that the decision to incorporate Moutse into Limpopo was taken without the community’s knowledge. SACP national spokesperson Francis Maleka said the party was not aware of any backlash and would decide on the issue at its central committee meeting this weekend. ”Our knowledge is that our members are hard at work for the ANC’s victory in the elections,” Maleka said.
On Tuesday the residents of Moutse township (also known as Tambo township) met at the local sports ground to discuss the incorporation and the case of seven residents arrested during a residents’ gathering last Saturday.
The seven allegedly beat up the acting traditional chief of the area, Chakie Mathebe, for supporting the ANC.
Mathebe, who suffered a broken arm and a cut to the head, said the incorporation move had nothing to do with him. ”I am not a culprit in this cross-border municipality issue because it is not my area of operation. But it is my democratic right to belong to the political party of my choice.
”What worries me is that I have became a victim of a political issue, as if I am spearheading the incorporation. I’m very worried,” he said.
A pensioner, JM Msiza, said the community was expecting the government to inform them about the decision.
”We voted for the ANC and now it doesn’t even bother to inform us when it makes important decisions that directly affect our lives. I thought this was a democracy,” he complained.
The youth of Moutse complained of extreme poverty and unemployment and said they believed incorporation would worsen their plight.
”Life in Mpumalanga is not easy, but it’s better than in Limpopo. We are willing to die for Moutse to remain a part of Mpumalanga. If the ANC wants to run people’s lives, it should have told us when we first voted for it in 1994,” said community youth leader Siphiwe Mogotlane.
”We don’t hate the ANC, but we want to teach them a lesson,” said Moutse taxi driver Tefo Mathibedi.
The ANC’s Limpopo secretary, Cassel Mathale, said independent candidates would have no effect on the ANC’s success in the elections.
”The only way people of Moutse can address their concerns is through the ANC,” Mathale said.
