ANC councillors respond to accusations after chaotic IDP meeting

The ANC regional chairperson has responded to the claims made by Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba following the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) on 18 April in Midrand.

Mashaba had accused ANC councillors of causing mayhem in the IDP meeting and has threatened to open criminal cases against them.

However, Sello Lemao, the ANC zonal chairperson, said the IDP process was flawed because the process was supposed to be a culmination of Cluster IDP meetings (which are meetings held by councillors to discuss community grievances prior to the summit held by the City of Johannesburg) that didn’t take place at ward level.

“As the African National Congress Zone 15, we take the IDP consultative process as an important legislated process. To our shock, we overhead via the media that a Region A IDP summit was going ahead, despite the agreement that all the Cluster IDP meetings would be redressed prior to any IDP summit,” said Lemao.

Read Update: IDP meeting in Midrand ends in chaos

Lemao alleged that the Economic Freedom Fighters, under the command of the EFF PR councillors Sepetlele Raseruthe and Ephraim Mothemi, violently threw objects at community members in a bid to kick out anyone who was not in Democratic Alliance or EFF regalia.

“As the ANC, we strongly condemn any form of violence that is aimed at sidelining the public’s Constitutional rights in so far as raising their views on matters affecting them directly,” concluded Lemao.

Political tension in Midrand is rising, what role can the community play to ensure that violent political clashes do not take place. Tweet @MidrandReporter