Johannesburg- Small parties in Free State are in coalition talks to oust the ANC from Maluti-a-Phofung municipality, which is in the party’s biggest region of Thabo Mofutsanyana.
Free State and KwaZulu-Natal are high on the list of ANC provinces that were hardest hit by independent candidates at Monday’s local elections. Many of the independent candidates come from the ruling party.
Sunday World has established that several ANC senior leaders in Free State campaigned against the party in favour of independent candidates.
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MAP16, made up of 16 former councillors who were expelled from the ANC after voting with the opposition to oust former mayor Vusi Tshabalala, managed to wrestle control of the municipality from the ANC, whose majority was reduced to 39%.
Now MAP16 and other parties like EFF, DA, Dikwankwetla Party of South Africa and African Content Movement (ACM) of former SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng, and other small parties are in talks to form a coalition.
MAP16 leader Paratlane Motloung, whose party got 28.55%, securing 20 seats in the council, said that his movement aims to restore the dignity of the people of Maluti-a-Phofung and focus on providing services.
“Our victory emerged in 2019 where we went head-to-head with the ANC through hard work and dedication. We are not going to be convinced by the ANC to go into bed with it as it had failed our people dismally for years,” Motloung said.
“ANC leaders begged us to go into a coalition with them, but we made it clear that we are not interested as we want to work for our people.”
In 2018, the Free State provincial government placed Maluti-a-Phofung under administration due to its inability to meet its financial obligations and by extension, deliver services.
Motsoeneng said the ACM would not work with the ANC. Instead, it was in talks with MAP16 and Dikwankwetla.
“ANC called us, and we told them that we are not interested in whatever they wanted to talk to us about as we are communicating with the MAP16,” said Motsoeneng.
“We only speak with the party that is determined to ensure workers in Maluti-a-Phofung are taken well care of and also focuses on the basic services to be provided for our people.”
Dikwankwetla’s Moeketsi Lebesa said they would never trust the ANC.
“We rather be in the opposition benches than go to bed with the ANC. Now we want to build our municipality and give our people services they had longed for in years of empty promises,” Lebesa said.
Spokesperson of the ANC interim provincial committee Oupa Khoabane said that the ANC in Maluti-a-Phofung had been experiencing internal conflicts for some time, adding that such negativity affected proper leadership of the municipality.
“The mismanagement of resources negatively affected the key services to the community. For a long time, municipality experienced severe interruptions of supply of electricity and water, as a result, the community’s confidence was severely dampened,” Khoabane said.
“The emergence of MAP16 is an unfortunate eventuality that was caused by the internal challenges of the ANC in Maluti-a-Phofung.
“We are aware of a situation where some people were working against the ANC campaign. We are dealing with that matter, and we hope to fully get to the bottom of it.
“The ANC has appointed a team to deal with a working relationship with other parties,” said Khoabane.
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