ANC councillors could be axed, amid row over ‘parachuted’ candidates

The ANC is going to its 55th elective national conference without having removed “parachuted” councillors from its municipalities and reinstated those chosen by communities.

The parachuted councillors were “strangers” who were smuggled onto party candidate lists prior to the local government election in November 2021. The majority of the “parachutes” occupied positions as mayors, speakers, chief whips and mayoral committee members.

No capacity

It had emerged that despite their cushy jobs leading the councils, the ANC cadres had neither skills nor qualifications to run the municipalities.

Concerned communities blamed ANC electoral committee chair Kgalema Motlanthe and the provincial list committees.

But a source said in fact Motlanthe had submitted a report to Luthuli House, which had been trying to hide it.

Motlanthe was asked to probe the “parachuting” of unknown people onto ANC party lists. The committee, thanks to the work of provincial list committees (PLC), uncovered manipulation of lists.

155 cases

The PLC in North West found 155 cases of fraud and manipulation of party lists involving top officials who allegedly deployed councillors in violation of guidelines.

Now, the ANC is facing a number of court actions by those who were replaced.

On the other hand, the party was wary of removing the imposed people because it feared losing seats in by-elections because communities vowed to vote the ANC out of power.

RELATED: ANC nominations: Gigaba, Mbalula among top 10, while Dlamini-Zuma, Sisulu lag behind

Recently, the North West High Court in Mahikeng ruled in favour of communities who applied to have their candidates reinstated.

Now, some community members in Madibeng region in North West have gone to court again, accusing the party of violating the court order.

Among the councillors who face the axe are civil servants who were asked by the ANC to resign from their jobs in anticipation of their political deployments. Those who lost their regular jobs included teachers, nurses and police officers.

Luthuli House instructed the PLC to remove 76 of the 155 “parachuted” councillors from various municipalities using its discretion, without giving the names of councillors to be dismissed or what criteria they should use to remove them.

ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe and electoral committee secretary chief Livhuwani Matsila did not respond by the time of publication.

ALSO READ: Mkhize could exploit North West ANC infighting to increase his chances of being elected

– ericn@citizen.co.za