Four Eastern Cape members of the executive won’t be returning to their respective hot seats in the Bhisho legislature, as their names top the ANC’s national assembly and province to national lists.
These are Cogta MEC Fikile Xasa, public works MEC Pemmy Majodina, sports & recreation MEC Bulelwa Tunyiswa and health MEC Phumza Dyantyi.
Dyantyi tops the province to national list, with ANC Women’s League provincial secretary Nolitha Ntobongwana in second place.
The list, submitted last Wednesday to the electoral commission, confirms that Majodina as well as speaker Noxolo Kiviet made it to the party’s top 50 for the national assembly. Majodina, also a national executive committee member of the ANC, is at number 40 and Kiviet, the former Eastern Cape premier, is at 42.
The party has 118 members in the national assembly currently. If it surpasses the 62% support it received in the 2014 general elections, it will increase its number of seats after the May 8 elections.
Currently it has 19 seats in the national council of provinces (NCOP).
That means if the party secures more votes in the provincial list, the likes of Sakhumzi Somyo (5), Zamuxolo Peter (13) as well as Nonkosi Mvana (16), the former social development MEC, will also head for the NCOP after the May election.
Other senior leaders who made it into the top 150 of the national to national list are Pamela Tshwete, Patekile Holomisa, Mandla Mandela, former arts & culture MEC Noxolo Abrahams, Nokuzola Capa, premier Phumulo Masualle as well as Senzeni Zokwana, the current fisheries minister.
The lists have caused tensions among ANC youth structures in Nelson Mandela Bay after the former ANC Youth League president, Lulu Johnson, did not make the cut of the top 200.
Johnson was elected as ANCYL deputy president to Peter Mokaba in 1991 and took over as youth league president in 1994. He was elected into office and secured a very comfortable 83rd spot in the 2014 general election.
Johnson, however, fell out of favour in 2017 when he added his voice to the chorus of those calling for former president Jacob Zuma to step down while addressing a meeting of Congress of Students of SA (Cosasa) at Daku Hall in May 2017, where the organisation was holding its 38th birthday celebrations.
Johnson is the current chair of parliament’s water & sanitation committee.
Former ANCYL deputy president Andile Lungisa took to social media on Sunday to announce they would challenge the exclusion of Johnson from the list.
In a post titled “house of truth”, Lungisa said: “The exclusion of comrade Lulu Johnson from our ANC list to parliament cannot go unnoticed by some of us from the youth movement.
“The ANC national leadership will [have to] come and address the matter in Nelson Mandela Metro where JL comes from.”
Lungisa confirmed to the Dispatch that he had written the message, and that “we are meeting at 1.30 pm (on Monday) to discuss a way forward.
“All youth formations including Sasco, YL and Cosas, will be represented at the meeting to be held at Matomela House (the party’s regional offices),” Lungisa said.
Johnson told the Dispatch that he was in no position to comment.
“I am in Port Elizabeth, but I have nothing to say about this. Let’s wait and see,” he said...