Voters threaten to boycott ANC in 2024 elections unless it removes ‘parachuted’ councillors

ANC voters in parts of the North West province have threatened to punish the party at the polls in 2024 for making empty promises.

The bone of contention among disgruntled party members was the ANC’s alleged failure to remove politically-connected councillors who were smuggled onto party candidate lists during the 2021 November local government elections (LGE2021). They demanded that the councillors that the community chose, that were sidelined in favour of the parachuted candidates, should be reinstated.

One of the ANC branches was organising a petition to be sent to Luthuli House and the North West ANC provincial secretary’s office to demand that the so-called “parachuted” councillors be removed and the legitimate councillors nominated by the communities be reinstated.

Parachuted councillors were individual who were smuggled onto party candidate lists prior to the 2021 November local government polls.

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ANC leaders, including some members of the party’s national executive committee, Cabinet ministers, MPLs, mayors, and senior councillors, were accused of being behind the manipulation of the lists to replace candidates chosen by the community with their friends and political allies.

An investigation by the ANC electoral committee, chaired by Kgalema Motlanthe, into the allegations of irregularities in the party candidates lists found there was interference with the lists and that high level politicians were involved. But the Motlanthe report was never implemented, nor even made public. Instead, the party appointed other investigative committees, chaired by the late Tate Makgoe and another by Dina Pule, whose reports were never made public.

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Now, a number of ANC branches at Matlosana, Madibeng and Moses Kotane sub-regions of the party not only refused to register as voters or check the voter status during the 18-19 November window period for voter registration, but they also threatened to boycott the polls in 2024 unless the ANC acted on its promise to kick out the parachuted councillors.

At Matlosana Ward 1, in Klerksdorp under the Kenneth Kaunda District, ANC members signed a petition, currently containing 680 signatures which they planned to deliver to the offices of the ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and North West provincial secretary Louis Diremelo.

The members claimed ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa announced after the 2021 local polls that the issue of parachuted councillors would be rectified. Mbalula made a similar promise during a members’ assembly in Rustenburg early this year, but the promises were never fulfilled.

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At Ward 18, Peela village, the home of the late ANC stalwart, Moses Kotane, voters stayed away from the November registration to protest against the ANC and vowed not to vote in 2024. The ANC branch members said they decided to boycott the voter registration and the 2024 election to protest against the ANC’s failure to address the issue.

In Ward 18 at Madibeng Municipality in the Bojanala District, only 54 voters turned out to register during the November registration weekend. Many boycotted the event to express dissatisfaction that the ANC had not removed the parachuted councillors as promised by then interim provincial committee co-ordinator, Hlomane Chauke.

“The community decided to deal with the ANC at the polls where it hurts most. We need an immediate implementation of the court order to reinstate our own councillors and the Motlanthe report on parachuted councillors,” said a former Ward 18 leader in Madibeng, who asked to remain anonymous.

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