Division over candidate for election in Ward 5
2011-04-28
Sabelo Mpana
AN ANC councillor who was overlooked during the nomination process for the municipal election, has decided to stand as an independent candidate. Nkosinathi Tyesi was recommended as the ANC candidate for ward 5 (New Rest) by the ward screening committee, after gaining a majority of the votes. However, when the candidates were announced, Tyesi was not among them. It is known that there is a great amount of infighting within the ANC in the Boland, as the Boland region does not support the provincial leader, Marius Fransman. Says Tyesi: “Someone called me from Worcester when the photographs of the candidates were being taken. That is how I learned that someone whom I had beaten in the ward vote, had been nominated in my place.” When the news got to the community, people started to protest in the streets, burning tyres. “People are very angry about the way the organisation is treating them. I have worked for the ANC for the past twenty years and would not have minded if I had been voted out of councillorship fair and square,” he added. “I will always be a member of the ANC. If anyone wants me out of the organisation they must come to me and tell me in my face that I am no longer needed. “I went to register as an independent candidate at the last moment, after people asked me to do so. Our argument is we want to prove a point by winning the ward. We are all ANC members who want to show the power of the people to leadership who do not respect the masses.” During the recent visit of Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to campaign for the ANC in Paarl, residents of Ward 5 were also upset that Motlanthe had spent very little time in their area, after an extended visit to party stalwarts in Paarl East. When he arrived, about 500 people were waiting for him. Most of the people told him about the housing problems, scarcity of jobs and poor service delivery. This situation has caused a division in the ward, with many people promising to vote for the independent candidate. Said a resident of ward 5, Primrose Mbenene: “We are not happy with the way the ANC leadership is doing things in the region. We asked Tyesi to stand independently at the eleventh hour, after we saw that no one was willing to solve our problem in the ward. “We love the ANC, but we need to be heard by our leadership. I have been an activist since 1976 and I have never seen a situation where leadership changes people’s decision,” said an angry Mbenene. Zinzo Mthini, regional secretary of the ANC in Boland, said: “The fact that a large number of people turned out to see the deputy president shows us that people are going to vote for the ANC on May 18. Everything went according to plane with our stops with deputy president. “At the regional meeting, Vuyani Hlati got the most votes. We do not elect candidates in public ward meetings,” added Mthini.
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