Mangaung Metro could be up for grabs as ANC councillors poised to quit in protest

Eight Mangaung Metro councillors facing expulsion by the party are receiving support from their fellow African National Congress (ANC) council members, who are planning to resign in protest.

Four of the eight facing expulsion, for having voted with opposition parties on a matter regarding ghost workers, are ward councillors.

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The mooted protest resignation of at least 13 councillors could see ANC seats up for grabs in by-elections within 90 days.

Copies of the councillors’ resignation letters seen by The Citizen showed that the resignations were addressed to national Cogta-appointed municipal manager Tebogo Shuping, and would be effective next month once handed over.

Such a move would leave the ANC’s control of Mangaung on shaky ground.

The unforgettable scenes at Maluti-A-Phofung Municipality in QwaQwa, when 16 expelled ANC councillors had also banded together to later help unseat the party in 2019, could thus be replayed in Mangaung with catastrophic consequences for the governing party.

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The eight councillors – who include Speaker Stefani Lockman-Naidoo, Deputy Mayor Mapaseka Nkoane, and Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chairperson Mpho Mokoakoa – were found guilty last month on two counts each for voting along with opposition parties in March.

They, along with at least 16 others, were adamant that they acted in accordance with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call to members to root out corruption.

They subsequently supported the opposition parties’ motion to have senior manager David Nkaiseng suspended for allegedly bringing in ghost workers at the metro.

According to the Regional Disciplinary Committee (RDC), none of the councillors made submissions to the committee, except for one who later withdrew from the proceedings.

READ MORE: Mangaung ghost workers hold city manager hostage, force him to sign off millions in salaries

Provincial, regional interim committees challenged in high court

Sources in Mangaung said the 13 resignation letters were part of a “widespread condemnation” of the region’s plan to boot councillors out of the party.

They argued that the IRC had no power to discipline or expel councillors.

In June, ANC branch member in Botshabelo, Ditaba Johannes Mokhutle, and two others lodged an application in the Free State High Court, seeking to have the interim provincial committee (IPC) disbanded due to a lapsed term of office, and failure to lead branches to hold BGMs and choose new leaders ahead of the provincial and the national conferences.  

They also want the appointment of the Mangaung Interim Regional Committee (IRC) by the IPC to be declared unconstitutional and null and void, accusing the provincial leaders of acting in contrast to a Luthuli House directive not to disband party structures whose term of office ended.

“It is evident that at the heart of any lawfully-convened conference of the ANC, it is the basic requirement that delegates participating at such gatherings must have been elected at properly constituted branch meetings.

“If such conference delegates were not elected at properly-constituted branch meetings or delegates who had been properly elected are denied participation at conference, it stands to reason that any decision to hold such a conference is invalid and its outcomes null and void,” read the court papers.

They maintained that the IRC’s six-month term has lapsed and therefore has no mandate to make any decisions.

The ANC’s national working committee (NWC), they argue, never consulted with the branches “about the creation of the interim structure and deployment of members”.

“No effort was expended to even introduce members of the IPC to the subordinate structure of the organisation.

“To me, this decried lofty ideas that the ANC purports to uphold as a democratic organisation. The top-down imposition of the decision is patently and diametrically opposed to the said ideals.”

They further accused the IPC, led by Magashule’s arch enemy Mxolisi Dukwana, of “dismally failing” to meet its mandate of renewing and uniting the party in the province.

The application will be heard in the Free State High Court in two weeks.

Mangaung interim chairperson Ncamile Nxangisa didn’t reply to detailed questions sent to him, except to say he was not aware of any plans by councillors to resign.

The Free State ANC plans to hold its conference in September to elect new leaders, when the curtain will close on suspended secretary-general Ace Magashule’s political hold and his reign as the longest-serving ANC provincial chairperson.

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