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The ANC in Mpumalanga has acted swiftly to fire a mayor in one of the worst-performing municipalities ahead of the local government elections this year.
ANC provincial secretary, Mandla Ndlovu, said the mayor of Dipaleseng local municipality in Balfour, Sarah Nhlapho, would be redeployed to the Gert Sibande district council.
The party was rattled after disgruntled members formed a new organisation, Sisonke Progressive Party, to contest the local government elections that will probably take place in August.
The ANC leads the municipality with a small number. In 2011, it won seven of the 12 council seats. One seat went to an independent councillor who left the ANC, another went to a local organisation, the Socialist Civic Movement, and the rest to the Democratic Alliance.
Dipaleseng residents have been demanding to be demarcated back into the Gauteng province since 2010.
In 2010 and 2011, they staged lengthy violent protests that forced President Jacob Zuma to appoint teams from national, provincial and local government to expedite the delivery of services such as water and electricity.
Since then the municipality has been unstable as a result of ANC’s infighting on the one hand, rendering the council dysfunctional, and lack of service delivery on the other.
Municipal manager Vusi Ngcobo was chased away by workers a few months ago after being accused of being corrupt and he has requested the ANC to redeploy him.
Ndlovu said the ANC declared Dipaleseng a “hot spot” as a result of the 2011 elections outcome.
“The new political party [Sisonke] was founded by our own comrades to contest the 2016 local government elections. The provincial executive committee had to intervene,” Ndlovu said.
Ndlovu said that the nomination of candidate councillors would be nullified to accommodate comrades who had defected to Sisonke Progressive Party.
Sisonke was not the only political party formed by disgruntled members in Mpumalanga. Towards the 2011 local government election, fed-up ANC members in Bushbuckridge formed the Bushbuckridge Residents Association.
The association went on to win a seat in the provincial legislature after the general elections.
Lately, the ANC has suffered defections of senior members to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – former Mbombela city mayor Isaiah Khoza, and former Ehlanzeni district mayor Khosi Mkhonto.
Last week, Sipho Monareng – who led a disenchanted group, Save Mpumalanga – also joined the EFF with about 70 ANC members.
