Taliban ‘hijack’ N West post

The ANC in North West is disobeying guidelines aimed at preventing the hiring of incompetent but politically connected municipal managers.

A letter written by ANC provincial secretary Supra Mahumapelo, which is in the possession of the Mail & Guardian, shows that the ANC tried to ‘hijack” the process of hiring a new municipal manager in Mamusa (Schweizer-Reneke) municipality.

The letter has revived an old debate in the ANC about whether the party should be deploying ‘comrades” to positions in government or hire the most competent individuals regardless of their political affiliation.

The position of municipal manager became vacant when the previous acting manager was recalled to provincial government after he completed his temporary assignment.

Members of a political faction known as ‘Mapogo” have alleged that another dominant ANC faction, nicknamed ‘the Talibans”, now wants Meokgo Matuva, a Taliban and former ANC provincial membership officer, to get the job.

The Mapogo members are opposed to her appointment because they believe the ANC interfered with the hiring process and that Matuva, currently an Integrated Development Programme officer in Ventersdorp, is under-qualified.

Last year, the department of provincial and local government introduced guidelines to prevent the hiring of incompetent municipal managers in return for political favours.

The department’s guidelines for municipal managers include a requirement that they understand municipal law, human resources and municipal finance, and hold a degree.

Party insiders believe that the ANC has flouted the guidelines as part of a political purge by the Talibans of those people who served under former premier Popo Molefe.

‘A particular faction, which is popularly known and referred to as the ‘Taliban”, under the leadership of Mahumapelo, is in fact responsible for all the problems we are experiencing,” Kenny Morolong, the ANC sub-regional secretary in Mamusa, told the SABC last month.

Mahumapelo’s letter gives credence to Morolong’s claim, because it refers to a ‘normalisation process of the political situation in your area”.

Dated 5 November 2006 and titled ‘Normalisation of the situation in Mamusa”, Mahumapelo’s letter was addressed to another Taliban and the ANC’s municipal whip, Boy Lee, who was assaulted at a party caucus meeting at which the appointment of the municipal manager was being discussed.

‘We all have agreed that it will be in the best interest of the council of Mamusa and the movement for you comrade councillors of the ANC not to proceed with the plans to fill up the vacant position of the municipal manager, pending consultation with the organisation and [the] relevant MEC for local government [Phenye Vilakazi],” it says.

The minutes of the ANC caucus, dated 20 March 2007 and also in possession of the M&G, confirm that Boitumelo Tshwene, the party’s chief whip, presented five ‘ANC” candidates for the position on behalf of the provincial executive committee (PEC).

A panel from an independent review committee, constituted by the council, recommended four qualified incumbents, who are not the ANC’s preferred candidates, for the job.

The M&G has learned that, while the Talibans are in firm control of the Bophirima regional executive committee, they are losing their grip on the party’s branches in Mamusa, Naledi (Vryburg), Taung (Reivilo), Kagisano (Ganyesa) and Molopo (Bray).

The Mapogo members believe that the Talibans want to deploy municipal managers and other senior municipal officials loyal to them to win over the branches through patronage.

The Talibans are broadly supportive of Premier Edna Molewa, a Mbeki loyalist, while Mapogo are opposed to Molewa’s governance.

‘They hope to use the muscle of the municipal managers to pursue their political agenda,” said a PEC member who did not want to be named.