The decision by the African National Congress (ANC) in the North West to replenish its party list for candidates to the provincial legislature has caused an uproar among its alliance partners in the province.
This comes after the ANC submitted a reviewed list of five new candidates to be included in the provincial legislature. The list includes five ANC provincial executive committee members. The reviewed party list, seen by SABC News, had already been gazetted in the official provincial gazette on Tuesday.
Alliance partners say they were never consulted on a process which is normally a product discussed at alliance meetings. COSATU Provincial Secretary, Kopano Konopi, says they distance themselves from the list.
“In this regard, as COSATU, we are not aware of any new list that has been submitted in the legislature, and we are distancing ourselves from that; and we condemn the unilateral implementation and the change of the list in the province by the ANC without consulting the alliance,” says Konopi.
Civic organisation SANCO (South African National Civic Organisation) says the ANC has declared war against its alliance partners.
“This is a foreign tendency in the ANC. It has never happened in the history of the ANC that the list got replenished without consulting the alliance. It’s clear they don’t consider the alliance partners and I can say the gloves are out. It has been less than three months that the PEC [Provincial Executive Committee] is in office, they should not be doing this that they are doing,” says SANCO’s provincial secretary, Pakete Seaketso.
