Some communities in N West say ANC candidate selection process was manipulated

The African National Congress’ disputes around the candidate selection processes for local government elections seem to be far from over. Affected candidates and communities around the North West say the process was manipulated and alledged that candidates were hand-picked and imposed on them.

In the Matlosana Local Municipality at Klerksdorp, more than 20 wards have been affected.

Itumeleng Gigaba is one of the candidates who received the majority votes during a meeting in his ward but was removed from the list.

He is calling for the ANC leadership to intervene.

“We want the ANC to come and explain the reasons which led to the tampering of those community vote results. Number two, we also have to register our concern as members of the community to say that, there is no other candidate or candidates that we are going to accept, except the ones that are being elected by the people on the ground. The third issue, we want the ANC to be clear to us in terms of the time frames as to when are they going to rectify those mistakes.”

ANC briefing on candidate selection process:

The ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) says the matter is being handled by the party’s electoral committee, led by former president Kgalema Motlanthe.

“We are encouraged by the decision of the electoral committee which has vowed to continue to investigate disputes on the candidates’ selection processes, even beyond the registration of candidates with the IEC. No one has a right or the authority to change the name of a duly nominated candidate. We urge our communities to exercise patience and restraint and allow the ANC to investigate these allegations,” says spokesperson for the IPC Kenny Morolong.