Central SA
Mangaung mayor's election a calculated decision, says FS analyst─── LUCKY NKUYANE 15:12 Thu, 19 Aug 2021
The University of the Free State (UFS) political analyst, Sethulego Matebesi, says it's a given that some members of the ANC in the province would feel aggrieved by the election of Mxolisi Siyonzana as the mayor of the Mangaung Metro Municipality.
This, as many in the space of politics in the province tie Siyonzana as a close ally of former premier and currently suspended ANC Secretary-General (SG), Ace Magashule, whilst others paint him as a staunch President Cyril Ramaphosa supporter.
He says many ANC members feel like the ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) convenor, Mxolisi Dukwana, who has previously publicly lamented Magashule as a corrupt leader, is now giving in to the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) camp. Matebesi says the ANC IPC's move to nominate Siyonzana as their preferred mayoral candidate, despite the criticism, was very calculated.
“One should understand the context and the dynamics within the African National Congress (ANC). You don’t want to antagonise people whose support you will need later and perhaps for me that has been the calculated decision taken by the ANC’s IPC or the so-called people who are very close to the current president of the African National Congress (ANC), Cyril Ramaphosa,” he adds.
Meanwhile, the former spokesperson of the previously disgruntled ANC members, Monnapule Ntamo, who took the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) to the High Court over its constitutionality, says the IPC appears as if it’s not interested in resolving all that went wrong.
Ntamo told OFM News that the election of Siyonzana as the candidate for the mayoral position is a step backwards and it fails to take into account the damage inflicted on the metro with Siyonzana previously present in the upper echelons.
“What difference will he (Siyonzana) make? We must also hasten to say we know it’s only for the duration left for us to go to local government elections but what difference will that man bring into this municipality? So, we are not really satisfied that the IPC advised that Siyonzana must lead this metro... it’s against that background that we see that his nomination is completely unacceptable,” he adds.
He said Siyonzana is the Mangaung Regional Task Team chairperson, who oversaw the Branch General Meeting (BGM) which led to the election of the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), which was later found to be unconstitutional and invalid by the Bloemfontein-based Supreme Court of Appeal in 2021.
OFM News
