ANC North West: IRC accused of hiring officials

ANC national executive committee member Soviet Lekganyane has read the riot act to the party’s interim regional committee (IRC) members in the North West, warning them to stop poking their noses in the affairs of municipalities.

Lekganyane, who is a convenor of the ANC deployees in the province, said the IRC’s decisions were illegal because it was not within their competency to do deployments at municipalities.

Legal competency

He said only the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) had the legal competency to do so. The regional leadership could only supervise the municipalities but still report to the PEC.

This after outraged branch members at Bojanala region complained about meddling in the hiring of senior officials by the IRC. Similar reports of interference by the ANC PEC and the IRC in the municipalities were voiced by branches at the Kenneth Kaunda regional general council (RGC) in Klerksdorp.

At the Ruth Segomotso Mompati RGC, members expressed concern about the disciplinary actions taken against Kenny Morolong and Mamusa executive members, by the PEC.

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Reports

All four ANC regions in the province held RGCs at the weekend to receive the reports of the ANC national conference and national lekgotla resolutions on the energy crisis, among others.

The Ngaka Modiri Molema RGC heard that the newly elected regional executive committee (REC) had not sat for meetings and the REC members were not on speaking terms.

They only held one meeting after their election meeting and they blamed the provincial leaders of inferring. At the Bojanala RGC on Sunday, branch delegates booed IRC convener Lucky Moate, refusing to allow him to chair the meeting.

The branch members said the IRC had been imposed on them. A branch leader from Ward 16 in the Madibeng local municipality claimed the IRC top 3 – Moate, his deputy Robert Ngwenya and deputy coordinator Ditebogo Moeketsane – allegedly gave councilors illegal lists of people to be appointed as directors. He said the councilors were warned not to question or defy the instruction as they would face consequence management.

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Questioning

Eventually the people on the lists were hired into municipal positions. The branches also questioned Bojanala’s IRC coordinator Lebo Ndou’s legitimacy.

They claimed she did not qualify to lead the renewal project because her ward 20 branch in Rustenburg had less than 100 members and, therefore, was not in good standing.

Another branch delegate said due to the political meddling, a junior official was hired as a chief executive officer at the Rustenburg local municipality while an experienced assistant CFO earmarked for the position was overlooked.

In another case, a child of mayor of Moretele municipality was allegedly hired in the IT department. Moeketsane was allegedly appointed as chief whip at Bojanala without going through an interview. The IRC has failed on the primary mandate to organise a regional conference to elect a new REC although the IRC’s mandate was to expire on Saturday.

The committee has not produced a conference road map but allegedly postponed it, although branches were ready. – ericn@citizen.co.za