Magashule and Duarte will guide me on way forward, says Lungisa
Image: GALLO IMAGES/ FELIX DLANGAMANDLA
ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and his deputy, Jessie Duarte, are the leaders to whom Nelson Mandela Bay councillor Andile Lungisa will turn to guide him on how to deal with recent demands for him to resign.
Lungisa is under pressure from the ANC’s regional task team (RTT) to step down as a councillor and branch task team member of Port Elizabeth’s Ward 2.
The call for him to resign stems from his 2018 assault conviction for smashing a glass jug over the head of DA councillor Rano Kayser.
He is appealing against his sentence, an effective two years’ imprisonment, but has not been granted leave to appeal against his conviction.
Lungisa, who held a lengthy media conference on Tuesday to respond to the instruction to step down, is digging in his heels, saying he will wait for Magashule and Duarte to guide him on the way forward.
Lungisa — who has been at loggerheads with the Bay’s regional bosses — said he was being purged because he had waged a war against corruption.
“The organisation took a decision to publicly disassociate with anyone who is involved in corruption.
“I’ll be writing to the provincial secretary to say I’ve received this letter from the media and it will need to be clarified because it’s not the ANC talking about renewal.”
Lungisa has denied receiving the letter, saying the first he heard about it was when he was contacted by the media on Sunday for comment.
“The ANC must be an organisation with integrity,” he said.
“Even the statement released by the national executive committee [NEC] is talking about rooting out corruption.
“We’ll take the line of march from the statement of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“People are confusing two things.
“The resolutions are very clear on what to do.
“My case does not relate to corruption. I don’t steal.
“Mine is a matter in council and I don’t sleep at night and I pray the Supreme Court will sympathise with my case because I never went to council to beat up anyone.”
Following a three-day NEC meeting that started on Friday, Ramaphosa announced that the party had resolved that all its members — including leaders at national, provincial and local government level — who had been charged with serious criminal and corruption charges must step aside.
Lungisa said there was confusion around his case because he was not involved in any corruption and did not steal.
“I’m requesting guidance from national leadership in relation to my case because mine is not about corruption.
“The audience which I will seek with national and provincial is simply to say the leadership released a statement, supported my cause since 2017.
“Now that we’re fighting corruption and regional leaders are implicated in corruption relating to the procurement of PPE, there’s a sudden change of heart,” Lungisa said.
He went on to implicate senior officials in the city in high-level corruption.
He accused RTT co-ordinator Luyolo Nqakula of attempting to collapse the ANC in a bid to hand the metro to the DA.
“There is an agenda in which the ANC must collapse totally in favour of the DA.
“It’s difficult even for the speaker to appeal.
“The main agenda is the ANC must collapse and the DA to dictate and run this city.
“We want to be clear, it’ll never happen.
“We’ll never allow the DA to run this metro.
“Those who are gunning for our membership can go ahead but we’ll never allow the DA to preside over the affairs of this city,” he said.
“They went to the police station [and] laid charges. I am not charged, I have maintained and still do maintain that this was nothing but a smear campaign.
“They publicly claimed to have proof, why haven’t they adduced proof?”
Nqakula said Lungisa was continuously displaying the “retrograde” element within him.
He said the directives that were issued had not changed and he expected Lungisa to comply.
“They [directives] will be executed without fear or favour; no amount of theatrics will deter the ANC from the implementation of its decisions,” Nqakula said.