East London’s city centre came to a standstill at midday yesterday when close to 1000 angry Buffalo City Metro ANC members and supporters marched to the party’s regional offices demanding the regional structure be dissolved.
The divisions in the ANC reached boiling point earlier this year when some branch members discovered a scheme in which a Mdantsane bank official was used as “service centre” to backdate ANC membership forms to favour one faction against others.
Under the watchful eyes of armed police, march organiser Joe Jordan, a former ANC MPL in Bhisho, urged protesters not to allow opportunists to hijack the party to only enrich themselves.
Jordan highlighted a Daily Dispatch exposé on how almost R6-million meant for Nelson Mandela’s memorial services was allegedly swindled out of BCM municipal coffers to benefit several local business people with connections.
ANC regional secretary Pumlani Mkolo, who has been on special leave since June, as well as several senior BCM regional figures – including former mayor Zukiswa Ncitha, former deputy mayor Themba Tinta, council speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele – are still to face criminal charges for their alleged involvement in the case.
“Some of us worked for the liberation movement all our lives, but today newcomers are hijacking the ANC to enrich themselves.
“And when we raise issue with that as loyal members of this organisation, people tell us we are going to be shown the door.
“If that is the case, we are more than ready for that,” said Jordan.
He was reacting to comments by ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane in Wednesday’s Dispatch that ANC members partaking in yesterday’s march should realise that they were bring the party into disrepute, a very serious charge according to the ANC constitution.
The group is also demanding that:
lAll those implicated in the Mandela memorial scandal be recalled as ANC deployees;
lProvincial leaders table the findings of President Jacob Zuma’s intervention report.
Zuma met several BCM branches earlier this year who had filed disputes over the handling of their branch general meetings. The outcomes of that investigation are yet to be made public;
lThe REC tables the report on First National Bank’s investigation into alleged backdating of ANC membership forms.
The Dispatch reported last month that an FNB Mdantsane branch clerk had confessed that “a number” of ANC membership forms were incorrectly dated.
The error is likely to have enabled members who would not have qualified to take part in branch general meetings to do so and those who did not qualify to be elected as branch leaders by virtue of being new members to be elected as leaders; and
lThe BCM REC be disbanded, and a regional general council to address all these issues be convened as soon as possible.
Supporters of yesterday’s march came from as far as King William’s Town, braving the rainy weather.
They included pensioners from areas like Duncan Village and eSantini, who were hoping to get answers on why they have yet to move into formal houses, three years after the Xola Pakathi-led regional executive committee was elected into office.
Among the elderly group of more than 50, who had to be bused to the regional office as they were too old to march from North End Stadium to Oxford Street, was Nombulelo Mbanakazi, 71, of Pefferville.
An angry Mbanakazi said: “We are loyal members of this ANC, but since Mkolo got into office our living conditions have not improved, and instead they are dishing out tenders among themselves to enrich those close to them.
“We are sick and tired of this.”
Jordan handed over the petition addressed to Zuma, to acting regional secretary Mkhangeli Maleki.
Maleki said: “We are taking responsibility to ensure that this gets to where it is supposed to go.
“And those demands which implicate the REC … we are going to sit down as regional leaders and see how we can find each other.”
Making closing remarks, Ayanda Matiti – whose membership status was revived after he lodged a complaint to ANC headquarters after the forms of six of his family members went missing just before his branch’s BGM, said if they didn’t receive positive feedback they would march again.
Matiti said the next port of call would be FNB’s Mdantsane branch.
“We are going to go there in numbers,” he said, referring to a planned march.
Video: ‘Stop the rot’ say ANC cadres
The divisions in the ANC reached boiling point earlier this year when some branch members discovered a scheme in which a Mdantsane bank official was used as “service centre” to backdate ANC membership forms to favour one faction against others.
Under the watchful eyes of armed police, march organiser Joe Jordan, a former ANC MPL in Bhisho, urged protesters not to allow opportunists to hijack the party to only enrich themselves.
Jordan highlighted a Daily Dispatch exposé on how almost R6-million meant for Nelson Mandela’s memorial services was allegedly swindled out of BCM municipal coffers to benefit several local business people with connections.
ANC regional secretary Pumlani Mkolo, who has been on special leave since June, as well as several senior BCM regional figures – including former mayor Zukiswa Ncitha, former deputy mayor Themba Tinta, council speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele – are still to face criminal charges for their alleged involvement in the case.
“Some of us worked for the liberation movement all our lives, but today newcomers are hijacking the ANC to enrich themselves.
“And when we raise issue with that as loyal members of this organisation, people tell us we are going to be shown the door.
“If that is the case, we are more than ready for that,” said Jordan.
He was reacting to comments by ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane in Wednesday’s Dispatch that ANC members partaking in yesterday’s march should realise that they were bring the party into disrepute, a very serious charge according to the ANC constitution.
The group is also demanding that:
lAll those implicated in the Mandela memorial scandal be recalled as ANC deployees;
lProvincial leaders table the findings of President Jacob Zuma’s intervention report.
Zuma met several BCM branches earlier this year who had filed disputes over the handling of their branch general meetings. The outcomes of that investigation are yet to be made public;
lThe REC tables the report on First National Bank’s investigation into alleged backdating of ANC membership forms.
The Dispatch reported last month that an FNB Mdantsane branch clerk had confessed that “a number” of ANC membership forms were incorrectly dated.
The error is likely to have enabled members who would not have qualified to take part in branch general meetings to do so and those who did not qualify to be elected as branch leaders by virtue of being new members to be elected as leaders; and
lThe BCM REC be disbanded, and a regional general council to address all these issues be convened as soon as possible.
Supporters of yesterday’s march came from as far as King William’s Town, braving the rainy weather.
They included pensioners from areas like Duncan Village and eSantini, who were hoping to get answers on why they have yet to move into formal houses, three years after the Xola Pakathi-led regional executive committee was elected into office.
Among the elderly group of more than 50, who had to be bused to the regional office as they were too old to march from North End Stadium to Oxford Street, was Nombulelo Mbanakazi, 71, of Pefferville.
An angry Mbanakazi said: “We are loyal members of this ANC, but since Mkolo got into office our living conditions have not improved, and instead they are dishing out tenders among themselves to enrich those close to them.
“We are sick and tired of this.”
Jordan handed over the petition addressed to Zuma, to acting regional secretary Mkhangeli Maleki.
Maleki said: “We are taking responsibility to ensure that this gets to where it is supposed to go.
“And those demands which implicate the REC … we are going to sit down as regional leaders and see how we can find each other.”
Making closing remarks, Ayanda Matiti – whose membership status was revived after he lodged a complaint to ANC headquarters after the forms of six of his family members went missing just before his branch’s BGM, said if they didn’t receive positive feedback they would march again.
Matiti said the next port of call would be FNB’s Mdantsane branch.
“We are going to go there in numbers,” he said, referring to a planned march.
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