Makana Municipality mayoral candidate Likhaya Ngqezana has downplayed allegations of his alleged plans to leave the ANC for another political party.
Makana Municipality mayoral candidate Likhaya Ngqezana has downplayed allegations of his alleged plans to leave the ANC for another political party.
A source claimed this week that Ngqezana, who is on the ANC’s candidate list for the 3 August elections, is on the brink of leaving the party. However, Ngqezana denied any knowledge of claims of his imminent departure from the ANC.
Speaking to Grocott’s Mail yesterday, Ngqezana said his ANC membership was still valid.
Ngqezana said he has communicated with the party’s provincial secretary, Lubabalo Mabuyane, but insisted that he wasn’t planning to discuss leaving the party.
“I have communicated with the ANC’s provincial secretary to say that I need a meeting with him, but that doesn’t mean that I have said I’m leaving the ANC. I need a meeting with him to discuss the Makana question,” he said.
The meeting was stalled because Mabuyane was on sick leave, according to Ngqezana.
“I need to see him and the chairperson, but he indicated that he was on sick leave and I said I should pen a letter to him. That’s a private affair now between myself and the ANC.”
Asked if he had any intention of leaving the ANC, Ngqezana replied, “(About rumours that I’m leaving the ANC), I don’t know of anything of the sort.”
Speaking to Grocott’s Mail this week the source, who asked to remain anonymous, said Ngqezana believed that the party’s candidate selection process for wards 7, 3 and 6 had been hijacked and that this would come back to haunt local government during the coming five-year term.
“Ngqezana is principled and says he can’t go with that chaos,” the source said.
According to the source, Ngqezana also cited the inclusion of certain former councillors on the list as a reason for his planned move.
“Ngqezana says that the ANC itself has pronounced Makana to be a special case,” the source said. “He says that when it comes to the 60 percent continuity rule (i.e. the principle that to ensure continuity in governance only 40 percent of councillor candidates should be new) that this should not apply here.
“He says that in the process of selecting candidates, there was no discussion about certain candidates’ roles in bringing the city to its collapsed state.
“Ngqezana says there are people who have been selected to the list who are incompetent, corrupt and lack the commitment to fix the municipality,” the source said.
“He is a popular candidate, but says he refuses to be the ANC’s credibility meal ticket and is leaving the party.”
The source denied that Ngqezana would be joining the United Front.
“He won’t be joining the DA either,” said the source.“He is a revolutionary – that should give you a clue.”
Responding to a question about Ngqezana’s alleged departure from the ruling party, regional secretary Scara Njadayi said from their side as the regional leadership they hadn’t heard anything from Ngqezana regarding the matter.
Njadayi said the only thing he could reveal was that Ngqezana is on the party Proportional Representation (PR) list.
“The latest information that we have is that he’s a candidate of the ANC in the PR list of Makana. Certainly he is a member of the ANC in good standing,” he said.
anele@grocotts.co.za
• Sue Maclennan contributed to this story.
