Limpopo ANC forces regional secretary to quit one of his positions

A media enquiry by The Citizen has resulted in the Limpopo ANC forcing its Waterberg regional secretary to relinquish one of the two positions he held for more than 20 months.

Rufus Magoro has been drawing two salaries since December 2021 as ANC Waterberg regional secretary and a member of the executive committee for the Modimolle-Mookgophong local municipality.

The ANC in Limpopo confirmed it had asked Magoro to relinquish one of his positions. It had first requested for the matter to be given space for discussion in a provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting last week.

ANC admits Magoro was wrong

“Having noted that the regional secretary of Waterberg is a full-time councillor in Modimolle-Mookgophong municipality, the PEC has directed Magoro to relinquish his responsibility as a full-time councillor and take up his responsibilities as the ANC regional secretary on a full-time basis in line with rule No 2153 of the ANC constitution,” said Limpopo ÀNC provincial secretary Reuben Madadzhe in a media briefing after the PEC meeting last week.

Asked why it had taken the ANC so long for Magoro to give up one of his positions, Madadzhe said there was no denying Magoro was wrong and that his actions left much to be desired.

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He said the matter came to light during a meeting and was captured by the ANC national working committee during its visit to the province three months ago.

“We then asked Magoro to give up one of the positions as required and he promised to do so. We harboured a belief that he had given up the position from the first day he was elected regional secretary in the same way, Rudzani Ludere, the Vhembe district municipality’s chief whip, had done. But we hope, as a disciplined member of the organisation, he will do things by the book,” said Madadzhe.

‘More harm than good’

A PEC member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said Magoro had also done more damage than good to the organisation by not being in office on a full-time basis. He said according to the ANC constitution, ANC regional secretaries are full-time deployees.

“Their duty is to provide political leadership to party branches and to the region. But I am afraid we cannot say the same about Magoro because his absence has caused a serious decline in membership in the region.

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“Magoro had ignored calls from the provincial secretary (Madadzhe) and the entire PEC, led by provincial chair Stan Mathabatha to relinquish his position.

“He refused to do so and opted to operate his organisational work from the boot of his car. He also failed to amass funds to build a regional office. As we speak now, the ANC in Waterberg is the only region in the province without any offices. He had also sabotaged every plan to build offices there because he knew he would be forced to be full-time in office.

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“He did so because he knew he would be forced to report for duty in office daily. Now, like nothing has happened, Magoro continues to smile to the bank every month to collect about R100 000 from the ANC in Luthuli House and from the municipality. What kind of a leadership do we have here?” asked the source.

R100K salary for Magoro

Magoro did not respond to calls on Monday and yesterday.

Sources close to Magoro said he earns about R47 000 from the municipality and R53 000 from the ANC. Magoro’s double payment comes at a time when Limpopo is counted among those provinces which have serious joblessness rates due to Covid.

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In the last quarter of 2022-23, the province had more than 700 000 unemployed people. But despite this Madadzhe, backed by Mathabatha, said recent reports by Stats SA confirmed it had experienced the largest increase in job creation with 80 000 jobs created in the second quarter of this financial year.