As the ANC in the Western Cape summarily dismissed several councillors who defected to other parties, a City of Cape Town councillor at the weekend threatened the party with legal action over his removal from the candidate list.
Provincial spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni on Sunday confirmed that they have written to municipal councils notifying them of the expulsion of their councillors in the City of Cape Town, Mossel Bay, George and Knysna.
The affected councillors will contest the upcoming local government elections under the banners of the DA, Patriotic Alliance and the SACP.
Mtsweni said a process is underway to remove the affected outgoing councillors.
“This move has been necessitated by the expulsion of members who have crossed to other parties. These expulsions have affected the Cape Metro, where three councillors have been expelled, Mossel Bay Municipality, George and Knysna respectively,” Mtsweni said.
He said that since no by-elections will be held for wards where there are expulsions of councillors, changes will be made in councils with expelled Proportional Representation (PR) councillors.
ANC Provincial Task Team coordinator Thandi Makasi has written to City of Cape Town municipal manager Lungelo Mbandazayo asking that he starts the process of creating vacancies for Ward 41 councillor Lindile Sonyoka and Ward 39 councillor Thembinkosi Mjuza, who appears on Patriotic Alliance and DA candidates lists respectively.
“We therefore request that you implement and execute the necessary process in accordance with the applicable legislative and electoral provisions governing the cessation of office of a municipal councillor,” wrote Makasi in her letter dated August 28.
Mtsweni also revealed that Ward 97 councillor Mthwalo “Ryder” Mkutswana has also been expelled after his name appeared on Patriotic Alliance candidate lists.
Another ANC councillor in Knysna Municipality defected to the SACP, an ANC Tripartite Alliance partner contesting the elections independently.
Only two of the people paraded as defectors from the ANC in George to the Patriotic Alliance were actually councillors.
Mtsweni stated that the councillors risked losing the once-off gratuity to be soon paid out to councillors not returning to the councils after the elections.
“It means they will not get the once-off gratuity because they could not wait until November to leave,” Mtsweni added.
Some of the expelled councillors remained defiant.
Mkutswana said they have no problem with being removed from the councils.
“The policy says they must wait for 90 days to remove a councillor, but, unfortunately, we don’t have 90 days. We have 60 days, which means they have no right to do anything until the elections,” he said.
Sonyoka said he has not heard anything from both the ANC and the municipality, and denied being on a candidate list of the Patriotic Alliance.
“I am not a member of any other party. They have never brought forward anything officially to me. I have no correspondence from council, which is a legislated regulator of membership of council regarding my removal and so on,” he said.
“I do not belong to another party. They must prove that,” added Sonyoka.
Meanwhile, Ward 98 councillor Anele Gabuza confirmed that he has given the ANC an ultimatum to furnish him with the name of the preferred candidate who was submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission.
This after the ANC Extended Provincial Executive Committee removed his name from the list and replaced him with Yanga Mjingwana, who emerged as a popular candidate in community meetings.
Gabuza said the selection process in his ward was fraudulent and not done in line with guidelines.
“The Provincial List Committee decided to submit a name of somebody else, who does not qualify in terms of Grade 12 and vetting while I have Grade 12, experience in council since 2011, underwent vetting and the executive of the branch recommended my name as a preferred candidate simply because I meet all the requirements,” he said.
Gabuza said his lawyers have given the ANC until this morning to furnish the name of the Ward 98 preferred candidate.
“They have to respond by stating who the candidate is that has been submitted. If they do not respond to that question, the process will go to court and they will answer there,” he said.
Mtsweni dismissed Gabuza’s threat, saying Mjingwana won the popular vote of the community and that the ANC local executive branch had tried to change the community view and forwarded his name instead.
“Our processes were followed and he has no leg to stand on because we cannot change the views of the community,” he said.
Mayibongwe Maqhina
iol.co.za