The poll could prove challenging for the ANC in the Eastern Cape if the royals follow in the footsteps of the Mthatha Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association (MRRA), which, as reported in the Daily Dispatch two weeks ago, has chosen to contest power.
The president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) Chief Setlamorago Thobejane, an ANC MP, lashed out at the ANC at an Eastern Cape provincial conference in Mthatha on Friday, saying the party was hell-bent on undermining the traditional institution.
Contralesa is part of the mass democratic movement, and has traditionally voted for, and encouraged its subjects to vote for the ruling party.
Addressing the conference, Thobejane said if the ANC continued to act without consensus from traditional leaders in certain areas, they would field their own candidates.
Thobejane said traditional leaders were fed up with being used as “voting cows” by the ANC.
“We cannot continue to have a relationship with the ANC based on their convenience, and based on when elections approach.
“We have been fighting to have a session with the ANC to share with them the frustrations confronting the institution, yet they are nowhere to be found,” he said.
As elections drew closer ANC members would “run all over our great places trying to get us to bless them and support them in the elections. We cannot as Contralesa continue to sell the soul of the institution”, he said.
The ANC MP said traditional leaders in the Eastern Cape should reflect on what must be done.
“I am saying this knowing that all of us, particularly those of us here in the Eastern Cape, belong 100% to the ANC. But the manner in which the organisation is treating the institution will lead many of us to look at alternative homes…we are going to fall into the hands of an eagle who will swallow us because of leadership ignoring the institution.
“To them, seemingly we are illegitimate. They want our people to rally behind them but they do not want us.”
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said that Contralesa leaders should refrain from making threats in public and instead sit down and engage the ANC on the issues troubling them. “In fact, we ANC members are the subjects of traditional leaders in our respective areas and we do not claim anything from that,” he said.
Mantashe added that while they would not want to compete with traditional leaders when it came to elections, “if they want to experiment they must compete with their subjects, but they must know that the relation will be that of the competitors”.
Traditional leaders were not being left out, Mantashe added – Thobejane and Chief Mandla Mandela were ANC MPs and Inkosi Phathekile Holomisa was a deputy minister.
He said this showed traditional leaders were not being sidelined.
But Thobejane said Contralesa had been bombarded with proposals from its members for traditional leaders to gain more authority through their traditional councils by taking up ward councillor positions.
“If the ANC does not consult to get the consent of who should be councillors, then they would like to forward their own ward councillors.”
He said the reason he referred to the ANC was because the ANC was the only organisation he knew of that relied on traditional leaders to win elections. “They know that for them to keep leading in South Africa they need traditional leaders. The day traditional leaders say we want to take a break from the ANC and become ourselves, the ANC will never be in government, mark my words,” he warned.
He said people in urban areas were not as pro-ANC as those in rural communities, because the party spoke the language of the poor. “In the cities they prefer white organisations. The only constituency that remains strong in its support of the ANC is traditional leadership and rural communities. But how do we do that when we are treated in the manner in which we are?”
Thobejane said the institution of traditional leadership was under attack – intellectually, politically and economically. “We are at the centre, attacked by everybody, and we need to be united to defend the institution that we have inherited from our forbears,” he said.
ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane said the statements by Thobejane were unfortunate.
“Contralesa is part of the mass democratic movement structures .... Our relationship cannot be reduced to elections.” The ANC did respect traditional leadership, he argued, but agreed that more could be done “towards improving relations”.
“All the people the ANC is servicing in every ward are subjects of our chiefs. Contralesa is us and we believe in their leadership. If there is something they are not happy with, doors are open. We are always available to visit our kingdoms and traditional councils,” said Mabuyane.