Tshwane ANC accused of trickery involving candidates list submitted to IEC

The Tshwane ANC has allegedly used undue processes and delaying tactics to blindside branch members and the community, in order to submit their own preferred councillor candidates to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) this week.

According to members and sources within the party, communities were supposed to vote for their preferred candidates to add on as second nominees to those elected at the branch general meetings. Aggrieved members, say these processes were, however, flouted as the scheduled community votes were continuously postponed up until the IEC’s candidate submission deadline of Monday.

Despite complaints by different wards including ward 22 in Mabopane, a march by members of ward 86 and demonstrations by members in ward 33, the irregular list was still submitted to the IEC.

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‘Where’s the democracy?’

Members of ward 22 have requested the party to reconsider the proposed names of Tshepo Motaung and Kate Mabaso, stating in a petition that these nominees were not elected through community votes.

Members allegedly only received a circulated WhatsApp message stating that “all activities are closed. No BGM. No public meetings and no public votings should be conducted” after the scheduled voting date of 22 August had passed.

An ANC member in the ward, Norman Chauke, said the community elections, which start with nominations by the branch general meeting, followed by nominees from community meetings, and then community votes, failed to take place, with no explanation provided.

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“The community vote didn’t happen on 22 August as scheduled. The community is so furious. The ANC promised us the people shall govern and they should nominate someone who is democratically elected. We are not fighting for who should win, but at least there should be a fair process to elect someone to be the candidate for the ANC,” he said.

A petition signed by nearly 200 people stated that they will not accept the submitted names which were irregularly elected.

“The voting was cancelled without official notice. The community members came for voting. We do not accept and recognise any person that will be submitted as a councillor candidate in ward 22 without community voting,” said the petition.

ANC regional secretary accused of discrepancies

Ward 22 is among the long list of branches that did not take part in community votes and according to a source in the regional executive committee (REC), fewer than 20 out of the 107 ANC branches conducted community votes.

This was under the oversight and leadership of ANC Tshwane regional secretary Eugene Modise, who heads the regional interview and vetting process (RIVP) for councillor candidates in the party.

“Many branches did not have that voting process because many of the leaders of the branches wanted their preferred candidates, who won the popular votes at the branch general meetings. Many of these comrades know how they are not favoured by the community but are in charge of leadership in the branches, so they stall until the deadline,” said the source.

When Modise was asked by the REC to present the list of candidates, he apparently stalled and by the time the list was released, the damage was already done, the source said.

“He said this was not the final list and they are working through it as the RIVP and are going to present it to the committee.”

“We requested that he come and present the ward councillor list to us as the REC, before taking it to the political liaison committee because since it is us who know these people and know the wards, we will be able to know what happened and where and who got nominated and where,” the source said.

The supposed list sparked marches and protests among different wards and branches this week, with angry members protesting outside Modise’s house for answers on Monday. Another group took their grievances to the IEC offices in Centurion.

When The Citizen asked for the final candidate list submitted to the IEC, Modise said he could not divulge such information.

“The ANC internal processes are not done yet and on that note I cannot divulge anything as this is about people’s careers. Ward 22 convened a successful BGM which nominated candidates. Registration of candidates is handled by Luthuli House, our headquarters,” he said.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za