North West community threaten to disrupt elections over ANC candidate list

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Community members in Ward 41 at Meriting in Rustenburg in the North West have threatened to disrupt voting on election day if the African National Congress (ANC) does not address their concerns.

The community bemoans the removal of their selected councillor candidate on the ANC candidate list, who was allegedly replaced by someone else even after the list was sent to the Independent Electoral Commission.

Some angry residents say they are not going to vote.

“We are not going to vote here in Ward 41 because ANC is undermining the processes that they outlined in their constitution,” says one of the residents.

Another resident says; “This has divided the community, so far that now the community is furious.”

Meanwhile, Deputy President of the ANC David Mabuza says time constraints do not allow the party to amend the candidate lists.

He has urged the residents to vote on 1 November, nonetheless.

“I think our people must go and vote, we understand their challenges within the ANC, the list process. We are going to address them but we can always remember now the IEC closed the candidate registration. So we can always do this after the elections.”

Mayoral candidates

Yesterday,  Mabuza said they have decided that they will not be announcing ANC mayoral candidates for the upcoming local government elections until voting is done.

He says this is to avoid internal battles as people fight for positions at the municipal level.

In the 2016 municipal elections, the ANC lost control of the City of Tshwane to the Democratic Alliance (DA) due to the issue of preference on those who shall be taking positions in the council.

Mabuza says they will now make announcements after the elections, interview and vet those candidates before they resume their duties.

He was in Mamelodi, Pretoria on the campaign trail yesterday.

“We have realised that probably this is not the right way to do it, to announce mayoral candidates before the elections because people are fighting for these positions. So, we will announce our mayoral people after the elections. We will interview them so that this must not really interfere with the voting process, people must go and vote, they must not get angry because they support a certain person.”

a year ago