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A fresh round of a campaign aimed at unseating one of the most popular and politically influential premiers, Supra Mahumapelo, is on the cards, say campaigners whose first attempt was met with fierce opposition last week.
The North West Business Forum, who seems to have battle lines drawn with Mahumapelo, are calling for him to resign or get “ejected” from the office, citing allegations of corruption as one of the reasons behind the campaign.
The forum said it was going to embark on other means to intensify the campaign after they were forced to abandon their plans to hold a mini rally which was to lead to some “rolling mass action” from Tuesday last week.
The ANC Youth League in the province took to the streets of Mahikeng on the same day in defence of Mahumapelo. This is what, according to the forum, led to the cancellation of their plans to avoid any “confrontation and bloodshed”.
The forum is led by businessmen Sello Mogodiri, Fana Moraka, Oupa Mphomane and well-known politician and former Ngaka Modiri Molema District municipality mayor Themba Gwabeni.
The four were recently written to by Mahumapelo’s lawyers asking them to apologise for public utterances in which allegations of corruption and insinuations that the premier was not fit for office, was a dictator, greedy and incompetent were made.
The forum’s secretary, Mogodiri, said they were “daring” Mahumapelo to go ahead and drag them to court after they failed to apologise by February 2, which was the deadline given in the letter.
He said they’d be happy to go to court because they had “all the evidence to prove that Mahumapelo is corrupt”.
Following their abandoned launch of the campaign to unseat Mahumapelo, Mogodiri said it was not all over.
“They may call us cowards but we're undaunted, our spirit is not dampened and instead we’re even more pumped up and determined to intensify our public outcry for the premier to resign as well as our plans for his ejection. There are many ways to kill a cat and with what is coming, Mahumapelo will never know what hit him,” he said.
“We still maintain that Mahumapelo is corrupt and not fit for office as the premier. We have evidence to substantiate all allegations which are why we’re saying a lifestyle audit should be conducted which will confirm his ill-gotten gains and corrupt activities.”
Defending Mahumapelo
The ANC Youth League has vowed to fight to the last gasp in defence of the premier.
“When you touch Supra Mahumapelo you are touching us. We’re going to defend him with everything we have because for us he is doing a great job especially with his radical approach on economic empowerment of those who were formerly the forgotten people in townships, villages and small dorpies,” said Ngaka Modiri Molema regional chairperson Wessels Morweng.
“Those who want him out are bitter businessmen who are not benefiting handsomely like they used to and clearly not happy that the current premier is biased to the poor. As a result the rich are angry and want him out but we will ensure that Mahumapelo serves his term to the end and even returns for the second one to continue doing a great job.”
Mogodiri has denied being a bitter businessman saying “we’re not expecting any tenders from the premier”. He added that they “knew the consequences of what we have started which will lead to our blacklisting as businessmen and put our lives in danger but we’ve made peace with it”.
“Mahumapelo has grown bigger than the ANC and as a leader [provincial chairperson and premier] he has turned into an iron fist ruler who believes in ‘you are either with me or you are not’. He is doing all these in disregard of our democratic right to voice out our concerns and unlike many others we won’t be silenced but will leave it to the ANC to decide whether they will continue protecting one man against all those voters who are non-partisan but have genuine concerns as citizens,” he said.
Mogodiri maintains the forum was enjoying enormous but silent support from heavyweights like MECs and members of the ANC North West provincial executive committee.
“We’re talking to many people who are afraid to come out but I can tell you that more people than you can ever imagine will celebrate the day they see him go,” he said.
Violence
The forum’s secretary has also accused the youth league of resorting to violence in defending Mahumapelo. Local radio station Mafikeng FM reported last week that a group of people believed to be youth league members blocked the way for Mogodiri to leave the SABC building where he was interviewed together with Wessels on the “Mahumapelo removal” campaign on Tuesday night.
It was said in the bulletins that some of the people from the group were armed and police had to be called in to intervene before Mogodiri could leave.
This was confirmed by Mogodiri, who added that he was nearly attacked. This was denied by the youth league.
While he agreed that youth league members came to the SABC building, he denied they entered the premises.
“My constituency understood that I was being interviewed together with a ruthless man so they came there to maintain presence,” he said. “Yes, we will go all out to defend our premier but not in a violent manner. No one was armed.”
Meanwhile, the provincial ANC said the forum had long been challenged to produce evidence to support allegations of corruption against Mahumapelo but failed.
“It is clear to us as the ANC that the Business Forum has declared itself an enemy of the ANC and we will treat it as such unless its actions and words prove otherwise. The ANC and its government will not be intimidated and will continue to act on individuals and companies that are given government work and do shoddy work or fail to deliver as some of the NW Business Forum members have done,” the party’s provincial secretary Dakota Legoete said.
“Now that the ANC government wants them to be accountable, they have resorted to hiding behind dirty tricks and the so-called NW Business Forum which is just an alliance of convenience to protect a few rich businesspeople who do not want to share the pie of work in the province with others.”
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