Local National African Federated Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Nafcoc) officials are disputing the legitimacy of an electoral meeting that was held in the City Hall in December.
Local National African Federated Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Nafcoc) officials are disputing the legitimacy of an electoral meeting that was held in the City Hall in December.
At the meeting, former Nafcoc district chairperson Mxolisi Dyibishe was elected to head up the new committee, with Simphiwe Magopeni, Mavis Depi, Nomvuzo Dyibishe, Johnson Mgxoteni, Anele Depi and Nombulelo Mgxotheni being elected onto the committee.
Nafcoc district secretary Otto Ntshebe says the meeting was “constitutionally unprocedural” and that only a limited number of Nafcoc officials were informed about it.
“We knew nothing about that election and our members should ignore the article published on Tuesday, ” he said. Grocott’s Mail was present at the meeting and reported on the elections in last Tuesday’s edition.
Ntshebe says he is worried that Nafcoc members will be confused by the report, especially since the Nafcoc offices were closed over the period when the meeting was held.
“Nafcoc is preparing to launch both its regional and local structures and we are still deciding which structure to launch first,” said deputy chairperson, Ali Adam.
He said a task team had been set up in October 2009 to take the place of previous office bearers whose term had expired “a long time ago”.
However, he said he had not been notified of a subsequent electoral meeting. Adam has accused the newly-elected chairperson, Dyibishe of “isolating” himself from the original task team, which Dyibishe chaired with Adam, Ntshebe and Mike Mamkeli serving as members.
Mamkeli, who heads Nafcoc’s construction arm (Nafcon), says he was not at the disputed election meeting because he was not informed about it. “We don’t have a traditional leader at Nafcoc, the organisation is democratic and is governed by a constitution and upper structures,” said Adam.
Members of the original ask team said that no 21- day notice of the 22 December elections was given to its members, as is prescribed by the Nafcoc constitution. “There were no business people from other towns in Makana, such as Alicedale, Riebeeck East and Fort Brown or other races at the meeting,” added Adam.
The task team’s additional member Eric Dondashe has challenged Dyibishe to provide the attendance register of the meeting and Dondashe said that the election results suggest there might have only been four families at the meeting.
“We did not want to wash our dirty linen in public but we feel compelled to clarify the confusion caused by Dyibishe,” said Dondashe. “We want to re-organise our organisation in a democratic way so that our members can get the help that they need,” he added.
Nafcoc provincial secretary Loyiso Nkantsu also said he did not know about the elections and said that the structure was illegitimate as it was “fraudulently” established.He explained that for such a structure to be legitimate, the chamber’s constitution requires Ntshebe (in his capacity as district secretary) to preside over the elections.
This requirement was not met in the December elections, and Nkantsu said they therefore cannot be recognised. “Dyibishe’s membership was terminated in November after he attended a meeting in Transkei at which they established a structure parallel to Nafcoc’s executive,” added Nkantsu.
Newly-elected committee member Simphiwe Magopeni disputed the claim that the committee could not be recognised, adding that on Wednesday he was part of a Nafcon delegation that attended a meeting with the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC).
“The problem is that Nkantsu and the district leadership are supporting Buhle Mthethwa who was removed as Nafcoc president by a court order in November, when the court ruled that Lawrence Mavundla is the legitimate president,” he said.
“On 19 November we held a conference where a provincial council was elected with Dyibishe elected as second vice president of the province.”
Dyibishe says he will sue them if the article is published, because they are not Nafcoc [members]. He explained that Nkantsu was no longer provincial secretary as his structure was disbanded last year and a new provincial structure was elected in Mthatha in November following the court order.
