ANC stands firm on ejecting nine ‘turncoat’ Sol Plaatje councillors

There is no turning back on the ANC’s decision to expel nine councillors at Sol Plaatje municipality, whom it claims allegedly plotted with the opposition to oust former mayor Mangaliso Matika.

The councillors vowed to challenge their expulsions in court. They had already approached lawyers to brief them about obtaining a court interdict against their dismissals by the party.

The ANC Northern Cape provincial structure yesterday announced the nine councillors were no longer members of the party after they failed to appeal their expulsions within the required 21 days.

The decision meant there would be a series of by-elections in the province because seven were ward councillors, while the remaining two are Pule Thabane, the newly elected mayor, and Santa Johnson, former council speaker.

Provincial deputy secretary Maruping Lekwene said they had not received the appeals and therefore the sanctions imposed on them by the regional disciplinary committee stood.

Lekwene said the provincial executive committee had written to the Sol Plaatje municipal manager to inform her of the disciplinary action outcome and that the ANC had declared vacancies for their positions.

“These individuals can no longer represent the ANC in any capacity [as the Structures Act stipulates],” Lekwene said.

“The ANC … has, on countless occasions, together with NEC deployees to the province, sought to engage and have constructive engagements with these councillors, exhausting all internal processes of the organisation, but they have proven to be incorrigible,” she said.

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