Disgruntled ANC members protest over 'bogus' ANC members

Some ANC branches in the Vhembe district are under pressure to re-run its elective meetings because of grievances about the manner in which the names of candidates were decided on. Whether this will be achievable is uncertain, because the names of the “disputed” candidates had already been submitted to the IEC.

Last week, Limpopo Mirror reported on unhappy ANC members in Ward 19 who accused ward councillor Fhulufhelo Mutheiwana of not running the ward’s branch executive committee meeting fairly.

On Monday, 30 August, Ward 26 in Collins Chabane too came under attack as a group of about 300 protesting ANC members marched to the ANC Vhembe regional offices. The protesters were highly indignant about “bogus” members who, they claim, attended the branch executive committee meeting held at Madadzhe Primary School in Ha-Tshikonelo village on 9 August.

“We are concerned about bogus memberships. We want the branch executive meeting to be re-run and ANC Vhembe regional committee members to be part of it, as the previous meeting had been conducted unfairly,” said veteran ANC member in Malamulele Hasani Maluleke.

According to Maluleke, they will not recognise the people elected during the meeting of 9 August, as “only friends” had been invited, while the rest of the branch members were left out. “We were excluded from the previous meeting. How can we recognise such a meeting? We lodged our complaint with the ANC Vhembe regional office in Thohoyandou on 10 August and didn’t get feedback on it, so we decided to march,” said Maluleke.

Maluleke was joined by other dissatisfied members, who marched and chanted in front of the ANC Vhembe regional offices. They demanded feedback on their concerns raised. He said that, while they accepted the reply they got from the regional office, they would be even happier as soon as the dispute was finalised with the national office.

Meanwhile, ANC Vhembe Regional Secretary Advocate Anderson Mudunungu addressed the disgruntled Ward 26 ANC members via a virtual meeting and said the regional office had received their complaints and allegation regarding the attendance of bogus members on 9 August. He said that the regional office had requested the national office to furnish the regional office with a copy of the report, and that they would take the matter from there.

In a letter that was shown to the media, Advocate Mudunungu further stated that the regional office had resolved that the elected BEC on 9 August was not duly authorized to carry out the organisational work until the verification report was received from the national office, and that they could not continue with organisational work until the dispute had been finalised.

Date:02 September 2021

By: Silas Nduvheni

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