Rifts in the local leadership of the ANC exploded to the surface at a rally organised by the party in Vukani on Sunday. Party leaders cried foul about the blocking of councillor Paul Notyawa for the post of municipal manager, accusing an opposing faction of blocking his candidacy.
Rifts in the local leadership of the ANC exploded to the surface at a rally organised by the party in Vukani on Sunday. Party leaders cried foul about the blocking of councillor Paul Notyawa for the post of municipal manager, accusing an opposing faction of blocking his candidacy.
ANC members who spoke at the Human Rights day rally in which Notyawa was the main speaker rubbished claims that he was a member of the newly-formed labour movement, United Front.
Speaking at the rally, ANC Youth League sub-regional chairperson Andile Hoyi dismissed as lies claims that Notyawa was a member of the United Front.
He said this was an attempt to discredit Notyawa in his bid to challenge for the post of municipal manager.
Hoyi said he, too, had in the past fallen victim to the same strategy.
Detractors had suggested he had links to the Economic Freedom Fighters , along with councillor Mabhuti Matyumza.
"We are used to their lies! Let's petition the regional and provincial leadership to intervene in this.
We are not going to take the ANC to court: we are going to go to the ANC to fix the problems," he said.
Hoyi told the small crowd that the ANC is not corrupt, attributing the blame to "power drunk leaders" who destroy the image of the party.
Hoyi said the municipality had been ruined.
"We are being led by political gangsters, thugs and thieves – people who are prepared to do anything to hide their lies," he said.
Hoyi said the same thieves wanted to employ George Ngesi to be the municipal manager.
"They want to employ Ngesi, from Port Alfred. They don't want to employ a local person," Hoyi said.
"We wonder what they want to benefit." Given the task of introducing Notyawa, ANC councillor Nomathamsanqa Meti carried on where Hoyi had left off.
Meti said Notyawa had been blocked when he contested
the position of mayor in Makana.
"Now he has used his qualifications to apply for the job of municipal manager and once again the thieves and liars are blocking him."
Meti affirmed that Notyawa was an ANC member and an educated man.
"Yet he is being blocked by people who have never even reached Standard 7."
When Notyawa took to the podium he spoke about human rights and their significance, and how people now take rights for granted.
He recalled how under apartheid, black people were not allowed to walk or gather in groups of more than two.
"This might sound insignificant, but we would not be allowed to sit under this tent like this," he said.
Notyawa told the crowd that the corruption was a big enemy of the people, as he launched an all out attack on the current local leadership of the ANC.
Notyawa said the ANC had made a big mistake in electing Zamuxolo Peter as the mayor of Makana Municipality and Rachel Madinda-Isaac as it's Speaker.
"A mistake was made by the organisation when it gave you that Mayor and that Speaker. You must forgive the ANC for that," he told the crowd.
Notyawa then shifted his focus to the Kabuso forensic audit report. He told the crowd this was an investigation done to establish what had led to the municipality to bankruptcy.
He said the report had implicated Peter and Madinda-Isaac for their role in granting former municipal manager Dr Pravine Naidoo a R3 million settlement.
He said both Peter and Madinda-Isaac must answer for their involvement in granting Naidoo the settlement.
Notyawa made it clear that the Council was divided.
"We will never see eye-to-eye in that Council because there are two different factions, but we are not going to stop fighting," Notyawa said.
Hoyi said the ANC's leadership needed to take decisive steps rid the municipality of corrupt leaders and recover the municipality's money from them."
Other councillors at the meeting were Mthuthuzeli Madinda and Malibongwe Khubalo.
Meanwhile the Democratic Alliance issued a statement last Friday expressing deep concern over the withdrawal of the municipality’s preferred candidate for the position of municipal manager.
"We believe that the withdrawal of advocate Paul Notyawa was on the direct instructions of the higher structures of the governing ANC," councillor Brian Jackson said.
Jackson said the Council debated the matter of the municipal manager at the last ordinary council meeting.
He said having noted the information supplied, the DA caucus decided to support the appointment of Notyawa.
"We therefore voted for him along with the majority of the ANC councillors," he said, adding that they had heard the ANC elite would have preferred another candidate.
He said shortly thereafter, they were given to understand that a delegation of ANC senior members, in Grahamstown for the Water and Sanitation summit, started applying pressure on Notyawa to withdraw.
Jackson said his party contends if the councillors elected to serve the will of the people elect a candidate who has the qualifications to a position of such importance, that decision must stand.
"That decision cannot be altered by the ANC provincial executive committee or the ANC regional structures." he said.
Jackson said the DA would follow up on the legalities of the withdrawal.
anele@grocotts.co.za
