MIDDELBURG – Former Steve Tshwete councillors have refuted allegations that they are responsible for the ANC’s loss of support during the 2021 local government elections.
Johan Matshiane and Semakaleng Nkadimeng, who are now members of President Zuma’s led MK party, believe they have been used as scapegoats for the ANC’s humiliating defeat, which saw it lose 11 seats to the EFF, MHRF, Freedom Front Plus (FF+), and independent candidates.
In August 2021, a series of violent protests erupted over tariff hikes following a data cleansing project implemented by the municipality to remove non-qualifying residents from indigents. The impasse between the community and the municipality also led to the emergence of the aggressive Middelburg and Hendrina Residents Front (MHRF) and an independent candidate who snatched 7 and 1 seats, respectively, resulting in a hung council. The EFF and FF+ secured 2 and 1 seats, respectively, while the DA maintained its 17 seats during the 2021 November local government elections.
According to the ANC, Matshiane, then MMC for infrastructure, and Semakaleng Nkadimeng, then ANC chief whip, are to blame for the ANC’s failure to achieve an absolute majority. ANC Nkangala secretary Sello Matshoga told the paper that the pair was part of the council which resolved to cleanse the indigent policy and called upon beneficiaries to reapply. Matshoga also stated that his party rejected the subsequent increases in rates and taxes.
“When the council took the decision to increase the rates, as the ANC, we were saying that the increase was not supposed to happen. These comrades were part of the council which took the decision,” he said. “The ANC was, in fact, saying reject the increase; they went ahead with the increase. So that contributed to the ANC’s loss of support.”
The party also claimed that Nkadimeng failed to lead the council in ensuring that councillors, through the speaker, called ward troika meetings and took the lead in meetings pushing the administration to communicate and reach out to communities. “Therefore, she can’t today play victim and attack the ANC for failing our people.”
Nkadimeng dismissed the ANC’s claims as untrue and misleading. “The removal of people from the indigents came as a result of the Auditor General’s (AG) finding that the municipal indigents database contained a lot of people who did not qualify to be on it,” she explained. “Council then took a resolution to remove everyone from the list and invited residents to reapply. Those who qualified were taken back into the register, and those who did not, the system kicked them out.”
She added that her former party was bitter now that she left it for MK. “We took many people, including the ANC, by surprise. They never thought Matshiane and I would leave the ANC,” she said.
Matshiane echoed the same sentiments, saying that the reconfiguration of the indigents’ database had nothing to do with him or any other councillor. “It was a council resolution emanating from an AG’s finding to rectify the municipal indigents register,” he said. “It cannot be attached to me because I was not an MMC for finance and audit. The report came from section 79 committees to section 80, to the mayoral committee, to council before going to public participation, which involves the speaker’s office.”
He concluded by saying that the ANC is still struggling to recover from the shock caused by their departure. “It had nothing to do with us,” he stressed. “It is just a chest pain caused by the fact that we have left the ANC.”
