A screenshot of the video involving an ANC councillor pushing a woman. Photo: Twitter/screenshot
At the same time that President Cyril Ramaphosa is hosting the second leg of a presidential summit on gender-based violence and femicide, a video of a Limpopo ANC councillor violently pushing an innocent woman during a scuffle over the sale of a stand, has gone viral.
But the councillor, Judy Mphelana, who is also a speaker of the Makhuduthamaga municipality in Limpopo’s Sekhukhune region, has branded the video as a political ploy to tarnish his “gorgeous image”.
The incident, which has since sent shockwaves through Limpopo, took place on Wednesday after a meeting at the local headman’s kraal in Ga-Moloi, outside Jane Furse.
Mphelana was allegedly summoned to the chief’s kraal to discuss issues related to the tension caused by the purchase of a piece of land.
The stand at the centre of the controversy was allegedly bought by Mphelana and another family. A scuffle emerged after the meeting when the two parties started hurling insults at each other.
In the video, the councillor is seen pushing a woman, while others present plead for calm.
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ANC Sekhukhune regional secretary Mathope Tala said Mphelana had asked for two weeks of special leave while the ANC conducted investigations into the matter.
“We may not call it a step-aside, but rather it is a special leave since there are no criminal charges opened against him,” said Tala. “We have, however, begun with our investigations in an effort to establish the truth into the allegations.
If found to be true, corrective measures will be taken,” he said. “The ANC does not tolerate any questionable conduct that seeks to put the name of the party into disrepute. “And if any of our members is proven beyond any shadow of doubt to be doing the contrary, such member will be made to face the full might of the law,” Tala told The Citizen.
Tomorrow and Wednesday, President Ramaphosa is scheduled to be at Gallagher Estate in Midrand for his second leg of the GBVF summit. The summit is themed “Accountability, Acceleration and Amplification Now”.
The summit will look into the work done since the first leg of the GBVF that took place in November 2018.
The first leg of the summit was in response to the 24 demands submitted by the so-called #The Total Shutdown Intersectional Women’s Movement to President Ramaphosa following 27 nationwide women’s marches on 8 August 2018.
The women protested against the country’s pervasive scourge of gender-based violence and femicide.
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