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ANELE JAWUKA
Buffalo City, Ward 26
The service delivery challenges in Buffalo City’s Ward 26 in Newlands need a young person full of ideas to tackle them, according
to Jawuka.
“I am that young person,” he says.
The 29-year-old has voted at least four times since he turned 18, but has become despondent because “there is no change” in his rural village north of East London.
“Corruption is too much, so it needs us younger people to fix it,” he says.
Although former ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo come from the Eastern Cape, Jawuka says he had never joined the party, but he was “a follower”.
“But now I decided that I cannot continue with the stupidity,” he says with contempt for the ANC.
Jawuka says people in his village complained about a lack of roads, houses and water.
He is confident of winning his ward on August 3 as “people are fed up with ANC promises”.
He adds: “They want to send someone who does not belong to the party because the party protects its people.
“If I go alone then I have to report straight to the people. So they have that confidence in me. There is no one who will cover for me when I’m doing f**k ups.”
Nokuthula Goodness Mchunu. Picture: Bashin MokhesengNOKUTHULA MCHUNU
KwaZulu-Natal, KwaXimba, Ward 1
Mchunu promises not to be a “dictator” if she is elected councillor for Ward 1 in KwaXimba in KwaZulu-Natal’s city of eThekwini on August 3.
According to her, the ward has a history of councillors becoming dictators and not listening to the wishes of community members.
She says peace and calm had been rare in the area because of a lack of good leadership.
Her solution: “Residents of this community must come out in numbers and participate in the upcoming municipal elections to restore stability in the area.”
Mchunu is a veteran of the ANC Women’s League and served in the ANC as a councillor from 1996 to 2011.
When her term as councillor ended, she joined the municipality as an official.
Her decision to contest the upcoming elections as an independent candidate came about after a request from the community, she says.
According to her, KwaXimba has been ravaged by violence and “every time we would meet, there would be fights and some would get hurt while others got arrested”.
It was against this backdrop of events that community members approached Mchunu to stand as an independent candidate, and she agreed.
Godfrey Mokheseng. GODFREY MOKHESENG
Trompsburg, southern Free State
His mission is to beat the ANC candidate in Ward 2 of Madikgetla in Saulsberg.
For Mokheseng, who is an ANC member, the decision to stand as an independent candidate dawned on him after he was sidelined and a current ANC councillor was imposed on the community – an issue that has given the ANC headaches leading up to the August 3 elections.
“I’m an ANC member, but the way the processes of branch meetings were run left much to be desired. To top it off, the provincial executive committee refused to accept me as the community’s choice for councillor and were in favour of the current councillor,” he says.
His appeal to Luthuli House yielded no result. He says the ANC excluded him unfairly “at their own peril”, adding that “the leaders of the ANC are arrogant; they don’t want to listen to the masses, so we were left with no option”.
PASTOR ISAAC DE JONGH
Heideveld, Cape Town
In the coming days, De Jongh plans to sell his car to fund his campaign, which relies on Sunday donations from church. Not long ago, a few computers were sold to make up money for posters and about a 100 of the 400 T-shirts he needs, among other things.
He has been knocking on doors to educate the community about the local elections, saying that most were not enlightened and this ignorance was abused by political parties. He hopes to win the hearts of a majority of the 18 200 registered voters “under the dark shadow of the DA”.
He says: “People understand that pastor is the person that needs to be voted for. We will convince them with only the truth.”
De Jongh, a pastor at the Methodian Pentecostal Mission for the past 17 years, does not speak kindly of the current DA councillor, who he says has been endorsed by the DA despite being neglectful.
The current councillor is also no stranger to unending legal battles with the city. “I didn’t want to vote this year, but the community asked me to stand as an independent, saying they won’t vote for their parties. My wife gave me R1 000 to pay the Independent Electoral Commission,” he says.
ROBERT VILAKAZI
Ward 1 (Dietdane), Mpumalanga
Popularly known as “Ziggy”, Vilakazi also claims to be a victim of “flawed” ANC processes that saw preferred communities’ candidates removed from the lists.
He was initially a candidate in another district, but registered to contest this ward after strong lobbying by about 3 500 people, whose main gripe since the 2011 elections has been the slow pace of service delivery.
He believes his experience in government after serving as district executive and now chair of the municipal public accounts will make him a better community leader.
“I will definitely win. The ANC here divides,” he says.
Local businesses have made money available for his campaign, during which he explains how he will secure resources as an independent to deliver when elected.
“I’m honest with them and tell them
that a lot of issues that communities had which were resolved, like housing, were not because of the competency of local government but of the provincial and national government, so I plan to form close relations and work with those in strategic offices,” he says.
ITUMELENG ‘DJ’ LEFAKANE
Ngaka MM District, North West
Since 2011, political parties that came with a basket of promises in exchange for votes have not set foot in his village – until now, because its campaign season again, of course.
According to Lefakane, this was partly the reason he decided to contest as an independent candidate.
The unemployed graduate – who has an honours degree and a bachelor’s degree – says that, like the water in his village, politicians come in intervals.
According to him, the ANC has failed to include members of the community in projects to help them put food on their tables. Instead, he says, “outsiders” always benefit from government projects in the area.
“I am not a political entrepreneur. I am doing it because it’s the right thing to do for my community. I want to bring back the culture we had while growing up – leading the municipality by taking the initiative and doing things for ourselves.”
He claims not to have been a member of any political party, only an activist.
When visiting people, Lefakane is inundated with questions about what an independent candidate does and where he will get funds from to help resolve issues.
