ANC branch takes party to court over squabble for mayorship

A protracted political squabble among ANC comrades is heading to court, after having left the Lephalale local municipality in the Waterberg region without a legitimate mayor for more than ten months.

The council is currently divided into two factions – those who supported the so-called VBS Brigade, aligned to the radical economic transformation (RET) forces, and those who pushed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption crusade and his renewal project in the run-up to the Limpopo ANC provincial elective conference in June.

On Friday, two ANC bigwigs sanctioned by one of the province’s most influential branches, Queen Senoamadi Branch in the Lephalale sub-region, made an urgent court application at the North Gauteng High Court, asking for an order by the Limpopo ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) to have a council member appointed as new Lephalale mayor to be nullified.

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In a statement on 5 September, the PEC gave orders which signalled the beginning of the current legal war:

“The ANC Limpopo PEC has decided that the current mayor of Lephalale municipality, comrade Alpheus Thulare should be redeployed and replaced by comrade Aaron Mokgehle. The caucus of the ANC in the municipality is further directed to implement the decision with immediate effect.”

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The council, however, refused, and headed to the court to oppose the PEC’s order.

‘We will not budge’

“It is not a secret that we oppose the order. We have made this clear to the interviewing panel during the selection process of mayors last year, that branches of the ANC in Lephalale do not agree with this name. We are baffled that against our will, the Limpopo PEC still wants to impose this person to us as a mayor,” said Queen Senoamadi branch member Benny Ngoepe at the weekend.

“President Ramaphosa made a promise that issues surrounding the alleged manipulation of the list would be resolved after local government elections. But now the Limpopo PEC wants to impose a mayor who did not come from branches to lead this council politically. For what, I don’t know, ” he said.

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“We made it clear that this person the PEC is trying to impose on us was hand-picked by the regional Interview Vetting Panel to go for the mayoral interviews and not supported by branches because he was not nominated by branches.

“We said it yesterday and we are saying it today, we will not budge.”

Ngoepe said it was ironic that the PEC wanted to go ahead and appoint its own favourite while a total of 15 branches in Lephalale objected to the move.

“The NEC is the highest decision-making body in between conferences, which makes their decision binding to everyone. But it seems in this case the PEC is disregarding this important organisational principle.

“We are going to fight this matter up to the highest court in the land and until the last drop of our sweat and blood,” said Ngoepe.

Service delivery suffers while officials lobby for positions

While party leaders in Lephalale spend their valuable time fighting for over who will become the new mayor for the mining and tourism town, residents complained that the town has been crippled by poor service delivery.

Five residents in Marapong, Botsalanong, Kgobagodimo and Shongoane said last week water provision problems, lack of litter collection, and pothole repair backlogs were the order of the day in the area.

They said the town, which was supposed to serve as a tourist destination of choice, resembled a war zone because of uncollected litter.

On Sunday, the ANC’s provincial headquarters confirmed the legal action against the party.

“Yes, I can confirm that the current mayor and a member of the branch have taken the ANC to court against his own redeployment,” PEC spokesperson Jimmy Machaka said on Saturday.

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He said taking the ANC to court against a redeployment was not only uncalled for, but was also out of order and clearly undermined ANC processes.

He said the ANC reserve the right to deploy and redeploy any leader of the in various capacity at any given time.

“ANC leaders cannot decide to the ANC as to where they should be deployed,” he said.

– news@citizen.co.za