Defeat for ANC faction opposing Nenguda

Yet another attempt to derail the appointment of Cllr Dowelani Nenguda as mayor of the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) came to nothing last week. The Thohoyandou division of the High Court struck an application off the roll to stop the council meeting from continuing.

Last Wednesday, Maemu Fistos Mafela filed papers in the Limpopo High Court’s Thohoyandou division, asking that an interdict be granted to stop the election process at the VDM. Mafela is currently the ANC’s Chief Whip in the Musina Municipality.

In his application, Mafela complains that the processes followed to forward the names of the candidates to be elected for the top positions in the VDM had not been respected. The three candidates whose names were forwarded, following a scrutinising process, were Ethel Mihloti Muhlophe, Selinah Thinawanga Mbedzi and Fridah Tsakani Nkondo. Muhlophe was earmarked to become VDM’s new mayor.

Mafela mentions in his affidavit that the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) had “reservations regarding the appointment of any of the three candidates”. The ANC’s top structure thus issued an instruction that Nenguda must be appointed as mayor while an investigation continued.

“The unilateral word that Mr Nenguda must be elected as the mayor is nothing less than a coup d’état. It is an illegal means to bypass political process in order to usurp the mayorship of Vhembe District Municipality,” said Mafela.

The matter served before Judge Khami Makhafola. He ruled that the matter was not urgent, and it was struck from the roll.

Speaking after the judgment on Thursday, Soviet Lekganyane, who is also the secretary of the Limpopo Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), said as the PEC they were satisfied that the application was struck off the roll. He said ANC councillors should rather focus on service-delivery issues than on taking their own party to court.

“We describe such councillors who take their own organisation (ANC) to court as arrogant councillors who don’t bother to deliver better services to the communities. We have to learn to exercise patience, while at the same time express our intolerance to the wrong-doing in our organisation,” said Lekganyane.

Fistos Mafela said he and those who had taken the matter to the court accepted the outcome of the case. He said they had been unsuccessful because of some technicalities, which had been raised by the judge in court. He said the war was, however, still going on.

News - Date: 09 December 2021

Silas Nduvheni

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