In a bid to spite their political party bosses for allegedly forcing them to accept candidates they were not happy with in the upcoming by-elections in two Buffalo City Metro wards, some ANC members have vowed to “de-campaign” their party and “donate” their votes to the EFF.
This, they say, will be done “to spite” some party leaders in the Dr WB Rubusana region, and to make sure that the chosen ward councillor candidates, Lwando Pisane and Dumisani Ntyabontyi, who will stand for ward 20 and 12, respectively, do not make it to council chambers after next week’s by-elections.
By-elections are set to take place on October 9, after ANC councillors Andile Phethani and Aphiwe Gcwabe died recently.
In ward 20, which covers areas around Mdantsane’s NU6, 7 and 8, allegations of irregularities and alleged voter manipulation in the ANC’s internal process of selecting a candidate, emerged recently.
While Pisane had emerged victorious, some party faithful felt that Nkululeko Mbekwa should have been victorious after he had apparently won three of their four voting districts during the selection process.
However, it was not to be, as Pisane, after winning just one voting district, managed to amass the majority of votes counted in the four voting districts in the ward.
This prompted the disgruntled grouping to cry foul, alleging gross irregularities and alleged manipulation in the selection process.
This is because Mbekwa won three of the four voting districts with 667 votes, but lost the contest to Pisane, who only won in one district, but had 821 votes.
In ward 12, which includes areas around Smiling Valley and parts of Mdantsane’s NU1, similar vote-rigging allegations also surfaced, with disgruntled party members in both wards, accusing Dr WB Rubusana ANC regional secretary Antonio Carels of having a “dirty hand” in the alleged manipulation of votes.
Carels has since denied such allegations as unfounded.
Nolundi Mdledle, they said, was their preferred candidate after she had received the nod in the majority of their voting districts, with Ntyabontyi only winning in one station.
According to results seen by the Dispatch, Mdledle was victorious in four of the five voting districts, amassing 467 votes, while Ntyabontyi only won one district but amassed a total of 600 votes.
That gave him the nod to contest the by-election.
This created the dispute, with some party members arguing that as Mdledle won four of the five voting districts, she deserved to be the candidate.
The disgruntled groups from both wards later marched to the party’s provincial headquarters in Qonce a fortnight ago to lodge disputes, but they failed to have the decisions reversed.
On Tuesday, a party member in ward 20, who did not want to be named, confirmed that some fed-up ANC members had opted to vote with the EFF.
“We have a serious problem in our ward as the person who was popular among us was not chosen due to [alleged] corruption by some of our regional leaders.
“It is on those grounds that we decided to loan or donate our votes in the upcoming elections to the EFF as our way of showing our leaders that we are not pleased about the [alleged] corruption in the build-up process,” he said.
Another party member in ward 12 said: “We have agreed to go out in numbers to instead vote for the EFF, just to spite those who engineered the [alleged] corrupt process which culminated in us getting a candidate who was not popular in our ward.
“It’s not like we will be giving our vote to the EFF forever as we remain ANC members, but we want those responsible for this corruption to feel the same pain we have felt when they gave us a candidate we did not vote for.”
Carels on Tuesday confirmed hearing about ANC members’ plans to vote EFF in both these wards.
He said such plans were “unfortunate, if true”.
“We were told of such plans in both wards, but we cannot really get to know who these people are as these plans are done clandestinely, so we have not yet identified who these members are.
“However, such a planned move is unfortunate and smells of anti-revolutionary tendencies,” Carels said.
EFF BCM regional secretary Siya Rumbu confirmed that they’d had “interactions” with some disgruntled ANC members who had promised to now vote for the EFF.
“However, voters in any ward, irrespective of their political affiliation, have a right to vote for whichever party they see fit.”
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