BARBERTON – The service delivery protest that culminated in a councillor’s house being burnt down last week, was believed to be politically motivated.

Cllr Aaron Simelane of Mjindini Trust lost his house after it was set alight by furious residents.

Mpumalanga News learnt that it was believed that an ANC Womans League (ANCWL) member based in the trust, was allegedly using residents to remove Simelane from his position because she wanted to be a councillor for the local government elections in 2016.

Sources revealed there were people within the ANC in that area who supported this member of the women’s league as they believed that Simelane might be making a comeback in 2016. The plot, they alleged, was to remove him early so that the woman could secure the position for 2016.

An ANC member who requested to remain anonymous for safety reasons said, “Some of our comrades are back-stabbers. We sit in meetings speaking in one voice, but once we are done, they change the tune. Some are poor and hungry.

The protests are not all about service delivery, it’s about more than that. It’s very sad that some of our members are using community members to fight their political battles,” she concluded.

Speaking to this publication, the executive mayor of Umjindi Local Municipality, Cllr Lazarus Mashaba, said, “We feel sorry for Mr Simelane and I also like to indicate that we don’t believe that it is the community who burnt his house. It’s a criminal act. There are few individuals who did this.

Burning a house is not going to bring you a tar road or solve problems. The people who burnt the house used this opportunity as residents embarked on a service delivery protest.”

He concluded his interview by saying: “The Word of God says, do unto others as you will want them to do unto you. He’s got a family and now he just lost everything and he has worked hard for this. This is totally wrong.”

Residents of this area had embarked on a service delivery protest, complaining about poor water supply.

Early last year, the provincial chairman of the ANC, Mr David Mabuza, during one of his visits to Bushbuckridge, had warned ANC members to stop fighting for positions and focus on improving service delivery and building the organisation.

He was previously quoted as saying, “Members of the party must stop fighting for positions and focus on building the party and delivering services to the people because there are members who are fighting for positions of being councillors.”

Mpumalanga News tried to get hold of Simelane, but all in vain as he didn’t answer his phone.