'Rioters are not part of us' - says ANC man

MOKOPANE - Mahwelereng was a tinder box on Sunday as heavily armed police fired shots at crowds in an attempt to prevent members of the Mogalakwena Residents Association (MRA) from gathering for a meeting at the Piet Pale Sports Stadium in this Mokopane township.
“We gathered in peace, minding our own business when Public Order Policing (POP) members suddenly came and provoked us,” MRA spokesperson, Percy Nketsi told Maimane on Monday. Several residents sustained injuries from rubber bullets and had to be rushed to hospital.
“This situation is escalating into a war between members of the community and the police,” warned DA Parliamentary leader, Mmusi Maimane shortly after his arrival in Mokopane on Monday.
“Police’s repeated violent behaviour since the ongoing war between ANC factions for control of the municipality started some months ago is an unconstitutional act. Residents are attempting to take back their power and I will fight for them to do so,” Maimane said on Monday.
But ANC regional chairperson, Morris Mataboge, on Wednesday evening told Northern News that the ANC is not divided and that the uprise against the current mayor and Mogalakwena council is the work of a political faction no longer part of the ANC.
“If these people want to challenge the democratically elected leadership of this municipality, they should join a political party and do so at the voting polls,” he said.
Mataboge added that William Kekana has been suspended as municipal manager and that the provincial department for cooperative governance, housing and traditional affairs has, on request of the newly elected council, ceded a person from provincial office to act as municipal manager and get service delivery back on track.
Service delivery was at the core of Sunday’s protest action as large parts of Mogalakwena has been without water last week. Refuse is also continuing to pile up on the streets of Mahwelereng.
The MRA blames the controversial mayor, Thlalefi Mashemaite and the councillors currently in office.
Mataboge confirmed that the new council has re-elected Mashemaite as mayor. On the issue of corruption allegations against Mashemaite and some of his colleagues implicated in a forensic audit by KPMG, Mataboge said the ANC wants the Mogalakwena council to appoint an independent auditing firm of similar repute to KPMG to analise and investigate both the KPMG report and the Auditor General’s report on Mogalakwena.
“The ANC does not condone corruption and if an independent party looks into these reports and finds councillors have acted wrongfully, steps must be taken against them. But we have to be fair and cannot act on a report commissioned by an individual who may have had an axe to grind with one or more councillors.”
One thing the ANC and DA seem to be in agreement on was that it was unacceptable for the MRA to interfere with education. Maimane took the organisation to task for allegedly advising schools to close this week as “they feared for the safety of learners and teachers.”.