Pretoria – The protest by scores of disgruntled African National Congress (ANC) members from Kimberley in Northern Cape at the party’s national list conference in Pretoria was laced with mischief, secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Friday.
“Yes, I have seen the Northern Cape, though it has an element of mischief. Their appeals went to the regional list committee, they (also) went to the provincial list committee, they came to the national list committee and they were listened to,” Mantashe told reporters.
Read: Claims of manipulation ahead of ANC list conference
“To be here is just sensationalisation of their issues. We are not going to take decisions on the basis of emotions. We take decisions on the basis of facts.”
The disgruntled ANC supporters from the Francis Baard region in Kimberley protested outside the Saint George Hotel in Pretoria on Friday, alleging manipulation of the party’s candidates list for the upcoming local government elections.
“We are here to come and raise our frustration and dissatisfaction with our leaders in the NEC [national executive committee] and particularly to the lists committee of the ANC,” said Kagisho Mokubung, who was leading the protest.
The ANC’s national list conference will continue on Saturday, running-up to the NEC meeting scheduled thereafter.
“We are unhappy because of the manipulation which took place in [the] Francis Baard region particularly,” he said.
Mokubung said initially there had been candidates who were chosen by the branches.
“Suddenly, we went to our list conference and there were new names. The names had been changed,” he said.
Mantashe told reporters on Friday that the biggest challenge for the party in the nomination lists stems from selfish individuals who threaten to migrate to other parties.
“Many problems have everything with individuals who want to be councillors willy-nilly. They say it must be me and nobody else. They say if you don’t you don’t make me the councillor, we will go to another party. They say if you don’t do this, the community is unhappy here. When individuals want to be councillors, they go and mobilise communities and they can do anything,” said Mantashe.
He said mayoral candidates lists will not be on the agenda this weekend.
“There will be another NEC that will deal with that. What we are finalising this weekend is the list of council candidates of the African National Congress. We will follow that with selecting mayors, which is a different process,” said Mantashe.
African News Agency