18 May 2016 at 08:25am
By: SAMKELO MTSHALI
Durban - The SA Communist Party in KwaZulu-Natal has called on the ANC's national leadership to intervene in the ongoing protests in the province over what it calls the "corrupted" selection process of councillor candidates.
Despite claiming to support an "overwhelming ANC victory" in the upcoming elections, the tripartite alliance partner has called KZN's selection process of candidates the worst handled in the entire country.
The choosing of councillor candidates has been marred by controversy and has seen the eruption of protests in which infrastructure in various communities has been vandalised and torched, while two ANC councillors in the province, Zodwa Sibiya and Thami Nyembe, have been shot dead.
Nomarashiya Caluza, of the KZN SACP treasury, said that the biggest problem they faced was a leadership that was afraid of being decisive in making decisions that should take the province and alliance forward.
Caluza claimed recommendations made in a report by Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, following controversy in the previous local government elections, had not been implemented, and that this had given leeway to wrongdoers to interfere with the ANC's candidate selection process ahead of this year's local government elections.
"As the Communist Party we are not going to be a part of the rigging of the selection processes, and give a rubber stamp to the fraudulent processes of the ANC. Of course we support the ANC, but we do not support the undermining of its guidelines and processes," Caluza asserted.
She further stated that the party had concluded that the entire process of ward candidate nominations had been "a farce", and there was a deviation from the guidelines, an issue she said should be tabled to the national leadership of the ruling party.
"The reality is that the province is burning. The ANC leadership needs to get closer to the people, listen to the people and deal with the issues. Under the present circumstances it is very difficult to mobilise people to vote because there is instability in communities, which needs decisive leadership that will do according to the will of the people," Caluza said.
KZN ANC spokesman, Mdumiseni Ntuli, rebutted claims that the ANC had undermined its own guidelines. He said that although there had been speculation that in some areas the selection process had not been fair, people with conclusive evidence that suggested as much should come forward with it.
Guideline violations should be discussed within the alliance, he said, because "going public" with this information was not in the alliance's best interest.Political analyst, Dr Somadoda Fikeni, said: "This is reflective of the ongoing strife between the SACP, and to some extent Cosatu, and the ANC in the province, where the two alliance partners feel marginalised in the decision-making structures in the province."
http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/poll-anc-national-leaders-asked-to-intervene-in-kzn-2022986