Increasing calls for DOR leadership to be disbanded
CALLS are growing for the ANC's Dullah Omar Regional Executive Committee (REC) to be disbanded and that the Proportional Representational (PR) councillor list be reversed.
This after disgruntled ANC members, including representatives from all 12 Khayelitsha branches, held an ANC members election assessment meeting on Sunday night at the Khayelitsha Training Centre, where an agreement to call for dissolution was made.
The members claim Dullah Omar Regional (DOR) leaders failed to provide leadership in the election and positioned themselves as REC members on the party's PR list despite the majority of the votes coming from Khayelitsha.
This follows the Western Cape ANC Youth League's (ANCYL) call for immediate change in the leadership and for the establishment of a youthful Regional Task Team.
ANC ward 89 branch chairperson Sanele Kompela said the outcomes of the elections are a product of carelessness and a lack of leadership of the REC representatives.
“The problem is that we don't have platforms like regional councils where the REC members can account for their actions. There was no proper planning and strategies for campaigning to contest and win. We were just sent on the ground to campaign. There is also an issue of manipulation of the PR councillor list.
“PR candidates are supposed to be nominated by branches, with those receiving the highest votes being placed at the top of the list,” said Kompela.
He said they have been startled to see that despite Khayelitsha contributing 7.5% to the 18.3% the ANC has received in the Cape Metro, there is only one person from the area who made it to the list of 10 PR councillors.
“Even this person on the list we don't know where she was nominated. We are also calling for the alliance partners that had deployees in the branches where nominations took place to submit a report on who was nominated and where,” said Kompela.
Another ANC member who attended the meeting said the ANC in ward 4 received fewer than 1 300 votes, equating to 17%, and that in 2016 the ANC managed to get 29%.
“A person who comes from this branch is number one on the PR candidate (list), a branch that cannot even secure 1 500 votes.”
He said IEC results showed that the ANC performed dismally in the areas they came from.
ANCYL spokesperson Mesuli Kama said the ANCYL in the province also reiterated its calls for immediate suspension of all individuals responsible for the “manipulation” of lists across all municipalities and the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the National Electoral Committee Report.
Kama said it was disheartening and discouraging to witness the decline of the ANC in the province, however it was unsurprising.
Regional executive committee member and outgoing city councillor Khaya Yozi said as the leadership they have failed the party and communities.
“I was not surprised with the outcome of the elections because the present issues add to past problems that were never resolved. All the sentiments that have been expressed are correct and I don't distance myself.
“We had 22 PR councillors and we declined to 10, this is all happening under the same leadership since 2011.
“In the province we have structures but they are not effective. There has been a lot of infighting even about co-ordinating elections. Things have just been a disaster.
“Even to set up teams to select people who will be objective when selecting public representatives was not done according to the national guidelines.
“So drastic action needs to be taken, we have failed as leadership and we must be dissolved,” said Yozi.
However DOR spokesperson Nobukhosi Dlamini said the “so-called meeting” of ANC branches was a meeting of “dark forces” who thrive on malicious gossip and individuals who must not be taken seriously because their existence is based on “chaos and opportunism”.
“An assessment meeting will be convened soon by the regional election team, led by Vuyiso JJ Tyhalisisu, which has a representation of 13 local election teams from areas across the metro.”