/ 27 March 2006

ANC facing mayoral revolt

The African National Congress is facing an unprecedented revolt over some of its mayoral choices, with councillors opting to vote for their preferred candidates and overlooking provincial nominees.

In the Eastern Cape alone, councillors have voted for seven “self-chosen” mayors and speakers. It is understood that mayors and speakers in the seven municipalities, which include Makana (Grahamstown), have been told by the ANC to resign immediately.

In North West, residents have protested for days over mayoral choices in Christiana and Schweizer Reneke. In Christiana, two ANC councillors voted with the opposition against the ANC’s nominee. On Wednesday about a hundred residents supporting the two rebel councillors disrupted a council meeting.

The ANC in North West is planning disciplinary action against the pair.

In Limpopo, residents went on the rampage, damaging property, in protest against the appointment of the mayor of Bela Bela, whom they accused of underperforming as a councillor and of not being worthy of promotion.

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has dissolved its regional Pieter- maritzburg structure after prolonged infighting over who should constitute its new council.

ANC deputy secretary Sankie Mthembu-Mahanyele said individual scrambling for positions should not be confused with principled objections to ANC instructions.

“Everywhere, it is a few individuals who feel left out and who do not want to share responsibilities who are causing problems. After a while they will have to accept organisational decisions and it will be normal,” Mthembu-Mahanyele said.

The ANC Women’s League has disputed claims that the rebellion stemmed from a backlash against the appointment of woman mayors.

League spokesperson Charlotte Lobe said that once the party had taken the 50/50 gender quota decision, the majority of the members had fallen into line.

“Even in rural areas, where some people were sceptical about women competing in wards, they won convincingly. The challenge is to now capacitate those newly elected women councillors,” Lobe said.

In the Eastern Cape, the fight over mayors is believed to be linked to the ongoing factional divisions within provincial ANC structures.

The defiant mayors and speakers from the troubled municipalities — Mbhashe, Mnquma, Makana, Qawukeni, Mhlontlo, Nyandeni and Sunday’s River — will know their fate on Friday.

ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama this week said “there are processes under way to follow up [and investigate] some of these cases”.

ANC provincial spokesperson Mahlubandile Qwase confirmed on Wednesday that the embattled “self-imposed” mayors had been given until Friday to vacate their offices.

“Initially they were called to King William’s Town on Monday to account, but that arrangement was changed and senior officials from their respective regions were called to discuss this,” a furious Qwase said. “We gave them Friday as a deadline to leave their offices.”

The defiant councillors have all been accused of opposing the ANC by taking up positions earmarked for the party’s first-choice candidates.

“They will also face a disciplinary hearing for bringing the organisation into disrepute. We cannot have individuals within the organisation who don’t respect the higher structures and we want them to step down as of yesterday,” Qwase said.

The newly appointed mayor of Grahamstown, Phumelelo Kate, is aggrieved after being told to resign. The defiant Kate, who was under the protection of former uMkhonto weSizwe cadres, beat the party’s first choice, Zamuxolo Peter, by 16 votes to eight during a tense council meeting last Thursday.

Qwase said: “Kate has deployed himself and we cannot allow that.”

A well-placed source in Kate’s camp warned that if the mayor was forced to resign, the councillors would step down “in support of our comrade”, the source said. Asked if he was still the mayor of Grahamstown, Kate said: “I would rather not comment on that.”