Battle continues for control of Tubatse
ANC Youth League members say they will not back down on their fight for the mayoral candidacy of the mineral rich Tubatse Municipality.
|||Members of the ANC Youth League in Limpopo say they will not back down on their fight for the mayoral candidacy of the mineral rich Tubatse Municipality in Ga-Sekhukhune.
This is despite ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe saying the matter has been settled, and the league will be offered mayoral positions in one or two other towns and an executive seat in Tubatse.
He warned on Wednesday evening that the public spat over the youth’s rejection of the approved mayoral candidate, Chorus Phokwane, in favour of its chairperson Vincent Shoba was dangerous.
Members of the ANCYL leadership in the province have told Independent Media that their interest was not in other posts, but that which has been demanded as they recognised great potential for innovation and growth targeted at young people in the area.
Although the league would only be meeting next week to decide on its next move, tempers were already high.
“Gwede is being disingenuous… We will be proven to be right in the future,” said a leader in the top six of the league.
He did not want to be named, explaining he did not want to give the ANC an excuse to kick him out before they delivered on the mandate from young people in the province.
Last week the structure issued a statement calling on Luthuli house to suspend and discipline Limpopo premier and ANC chairperson, Stan Mathabatha, for unilaterally pushing the name of Phokwane for the powerful position.
“It is very dangerous to have leaders who take mandate from their own pockets,” their statement directed at Mathabatha read.
Mantashe has now turned the tables on the league, saying it would be mischievous for them to fight over the mayorship of Tubatse.
“It is dangerous and once you make one position in a particular town a life or death issue, it raises questions as to what it is that they are trying to do in this mining town called Tubatse, people must not do that because that will hurt the image and the integrity of the ANC,” he said.
With 17 multi-billion rand mining operations located in Tubatse, the municipality is in theory the richest in the province.
As the elections draw nearer, Mantashe said the fight would hurt the ANC, pleading with members do deal with issues “quietly”.
This in contrast to the sentiments of ANCYL secretary general Njabulo Nzuza. He entered in the fray on the side of the league when the dispute reached boiling point last week.
Mathabatha denied there had never been deadlocks in the PEC over the candidacy of Tubatse.
He said the provincial executive committee had resolved on Phokwane whose nomination was later ratified by Luthuli house.
“There has never been a deadlock in the PEC on this matter, the reason why we put it to the NEC, we were not only taking the Tubatse one to the NEC, it was an NEC resolution that the mayoral candidates for strategic towns must be referred to the NEC for guidance in case there’s been procedural defaults, the NEC must guide.”
Mantashe said their concern was about the performance of ANC municipalities, and not the allocation of seats.
@ThetoThakane
theto.mahlakoana@inl.co.za
Election Bureau