North West ANC accused of bias amid controversy over officials’ qualifications

The ANC in North West has been accused of double standards by acting against some politicians and officials while ignoring others who are not qualified for their jobs.

Concerned councillors and residents at the Mamusa local municipality in Schweizer-Reneke have expressed anger at the party after it removed North West legislature speaker Tshepo Khoza and initiated an investigation into sport, arts and culture MEC Collen Maine for not having the necessary qualifications for their jobs.

But the party failed to do the same at the Mamusa council which has been hit by the controversy of unqualified officials occupying senior positions.

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Khoza allegedly misrepresented his qualifications and was pressured to resign by the ANC after these were questioned.

Qualifications of officials

In a media briefing on Tuesday, the ANC said Khoza resigned “to afford himself time to deal with these allegations”.

It has also been revealed that Maine produced an alleged fraudulent matric certificate and a fake degree he claimed to have obtained from Mancosa before the private institution even existed.

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What also raised suspicions about his degree was that the font used was different from those that the institution issued.

Maine is former ANC Youth League president and was a staunch supporter of former president Jacob Zuma and his associates, the Gupta brothers.

Attempts to get a comment from Maine failed yesterday.

Mamusa residents are questioning the ANC’s failure to act on council speaker Gotsilekgosi Batsi who was hired in February this year despite not having a matric certificate and allegedly produced a fake degree qualification.

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He confirmed having no matric, which also prompted questions about how he obtained the degree without a senior certificate in the first place. Batsi was elevated to speaker amid the outcry over his qualifications.

‘Double standards’

An ANC member, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said: “This is double standards. Batsi is the one responsible for all the troubles in Mamusa council and this is abuse of power.”

Concerned residents who delivered a memorandum containing a list of over 50 grievances to council recently questioned the decision to remove Mamusa municipal manager Rantso Gincane for allegedly not having an additional required degree.

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But it promoted an official, Vincent Masilo, to CFO and soon appointed him to replace Gincane as acting municipal manager although he allegedly had no relevant qualifications for both jobs.

The CFO job advert required a candidate to have a finance and accounting degree qualification and to be a chartered accountant. But Masilo only has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

“This means Masilo was not supposed to have been shortlisted for CFO position in the first place. This makes his appointment irregular,” said the ANC member.

– ericn@citizen.co.za