Demand for suspension of ruling party secretary

The immediate suspension of African National Congress (ANC) Provincial Secretary Nocks Seabi was being demanded when disgruntled ruling party members from branches in the Peter Mokaba Region gathered at Frans Mohlala House last Wednesday evening with claims that the names of bogus delegates appeared on lists for final registration ahead of this weekend’s national elective conference.
By Monday a week of continued frustrations over alleged bogus delegates and flawed processes characterising registration ahead of the all important conference has reportedly drawn to a blank for one woman who was among a group of members protesting outside Frans Mohlala House last Wednesday evening.
Braving bad weather that night, Nomonde Sivhabu stood steadfast among scores of disgruntled ANC members who claimed the appearance of names of bogus members on two different lists for final registration prior to departing for Nasrec in Gauteng where the national conference is due to start on Saturday.
On Monday she confirmed that with the exception of the weekend she had been at Frans Mohlala House to have the problem solved, but to date her matter hadn’t been resolved as yet.
She said she, however, remained hopeful that the issue would be sorted prior to having to leave for Gauteng for registration on Saturday and not once they got there, as per undertaking given to her by ANC Provincial Chairperson Stan Mathabatha around midnight on Friday. She emphasised that the problem already had to be resolved in Limpopo prior to her being able to go to Gauteng and predicted that she would be turned away at the entrance if she had no proof that her name wasn’t on a list of delegates.
Meeting her outside Frans Mohlala House last Wednesday evening, she said members from branches of around ten wards in the Peter Mokaba Region alone had been affected by problems relating to alleged bogus delegates. She referred to examples of delegates from Wards 10, 11, 28 and 32 within the region experiencing similar issues.
At the time she said she had discovered that the name of another member of the Thembi Shope branch in Seshego, of which she was a member, had reflected on the attendance register and that an access tag to last Monday’s Special Provincial General Council (PGC) was issued in the bogus delegate’s name. After bringing it to the attention of the party leadership she had been given an access pass to attend the council, she added. Sivhabu further explained that after having received a text message calling on her to go for final registration at Frans Mohlala House on Wednesday, she had discovered that there was no name for a delegate from her ward but that the name of the bogus delegate was on a second list kept in the building.
That evening concerned members from Ward 32 raised the issue of three bogus delegates having been denied access to the Special PGC of last Monday, but to their surprise they discovered the names on the register kept inside.
A man who spoke on condition of anonymity lashed out at Seabi and demanding his immediate suspension for orchestrating happenings.
He claimed that ANC presidential hopeful Cyril Ramaphosa, who had received 391 nominations for the position from branches in Limpopo, while his fiercest contender – Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma got 104 nominations from the province, should have had many more nominations.
Similar issues were raised by someone from Ward 28, who claimed that the names of three delegates supposedly representing their branch at the upcoming conference had been replaced with three bogus ones.
Neither the spokespersons for the ANC in Limpopo nor Seabi could be reached for comment at the time of going to print when the latest developments were followed up.

Story & photos: YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com