ANC membership leads to knife fights

An ANC region elective conference at the Sammy Marks council chamber exploded in violence wherein two people were knifed and injured and recriminations were hurled around.

Paul Mashatile, the Gauteng chairperson, and members of the ANC Youth League and the Women’s League were in chambers when a pact of unsubscribed dissatisfied ANC members forced their way into the chambers demanding to be heard on the auditing and verification of members. In this process two people were stabbed – one being a member of the protection unit for city mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa. The unruly crowd accused Ramokgopa that he deliberately ordered that their names were to be removed from the attendance list to prevent them from participating in the meeting and thereby preventing them to oppose the re-election of the current leadership.

Ramokgopa was also accused of using the police to safeguard him against their anger.

Ramokgopa, highly displeased, reacted strongly to this and treated these allegations with contempt. He said that the Tshwane metro ANC members will not tolerate ill-discipline.

”The assault on a member of the VIP protection unit clearly demonstrated that the disgruntled members were hell-bent on disrupting this meeting,” he said. He said that party members had procedures which had to be followed whereby their membership is verified and that this process is respected in the preparation for regional conferences and the auditing of membership

In opposing the claim of the dissatisfied members he said that all members of the ANC have the right to oppose all positions.

”I look forward to the re-election of a team to lead the region to a successful 2016 election he said.

In support of the mayor, Lesego Makhubela of the ANC Youth League, also condemned the unruly behaviour of members and proposed that the claims of these members should be investigated.

Paul Mojapelo, the regional secretary, pointed out that Ramokgopa had nothing to do with membership and that the process of vetting members started three months ago and closed last Monday, which meant that no new members could be added for future conference.

According to Mojapelo, the meeting was on instruction of the ANC leadership to streamline service delivery and to discuss party issues, which did not include party membership.

The latter he said, was an issue which had to be resolved by other branches.