An African National Congress (ANC) meeting at Ashton in the Western Cape had to be called off when it was disrupted by a drunk and rowdy group of outsiders, an organiser said on Thursday.
John Ngonyama, mayor of the Breede River Winelands municipality, said the disruption was clearly orchestrated, with political motives.
”From what I understand they were [supplied] with drink to come and disrupt the meeting,” he said. ”It was clearly a planned move.”
He said the meeting, in the community hall in the township of Zolani on Wednesday night, was called to decide on a candidate for the by-election resulting from the axing of ward 10 ANC councillor Khanyile Klaas.
Klaas, who had been found guilty of breaching the council’s code of conduct, had since thrown in his lot with the Congress of the People (Cope), Ngonyama said.
As the meeting was getting underway, the group pushed past marshals at the door and began shouting.
One of them threatened a marshal with a knife, Ngonyama said. He said when organisers phoned local police, the cops said there were only two members on duty and they could not come.
”It’s not a good thing for democracy,” Ngonyama said. ”We are talking here of democracy which means you’ve got a right of association.”
Another date would be arranged for the meeting, he said.
Mogamat Majiedt, Cope’s Boland convenor, said the party had not been involved in the disruption of the Ashton meeting or of any other ANC meetings in the region.
”From what I heard it was basically a fight among them about candidates who are going to stand in that ward. That’s what happens in the ANC,” he said. ”It’s factions within the ANC that fight around the candidates.”
He said that although Klaas had resigned from the ANC, he was not yet a member of Cope.
Klaas could not be reached for comment.
This is not the first such incident to occur at an ANC meeting in the Western Cape.
In June ANC Western Cape secretary at the time Mcebisi Skwatsha was stabbed in the neck at a function in the Worcester town hall.
It was reported that Skwatsha was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure and to clean up the wound.
The meeting was held following a decision by the Western Cape ANC to suspend the Boland regional executive for ”defiance of provincial directives on municipal matters”.
The Western Cape ANC said the meeting was well attended and orderly, but was disturbed ”by a small group of people who came for the purpose of disrupting the meeting”. – Sapa