Taung mayor faces growing revolt over contested ANC candidacy

By Bongani Mdakane

Communities in Taung in the North West have rejected Mayor Itumeleng Maribe’s bid to stand as an ANC ward councillor, sparking a fight over allegations of missing community funds and claims that the branch process underpinning his candidacy was fraudulently manufactured.

Residents and ANC members from Kameelputs, Losasaneng, Mmadithamaga, Thota ya Tau, Kgomotso and surrounding villages have taken their complaints to ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
But Maribe is refusing to retreat. “I am standing as an ANC ward councillor,” he told Sunday World.
“If they don’t want me, it is their business but I am standing.”
Behind the revolt is a complaint lodged by ANC Ward 20 branch chairperson and community leader Letlhogonolo Berend.

He has accused Maribe and the MMC for local economic development, Thandi Sebe, of manipulating an ANC branch process.
Berend said the ANC national dispute resolution committee had nullified a branch biennial general meeting held on November 23, 2025, and ordered that the meeting be rerun.
He said the retake had never happened.
Instead, Berend has alleged that on April 27, while Maribe and Sebe were attending an ANC regional conference in Christiana, branch officials were instructed to manually scan members’ identity numbers outside the MTC church in Kameelputs.

He says the scans were later used to create the impression that a branch meeting had taken place where Maribe was elected as chairperson and Sebe as secretary.
“There was never a BGM or BBGM on that day,” Berend said.
The allegations have been backed by sworn statements from residents.
Poppy Sehako said in an affidavit that the church cited as the venue had been locked. “The church keys were in my possession,” she said. “I did not give anyone permission to use
the church.”

Berend said Maribe had not been in Kameelputs when the meeting was supposedly held, adding that another affidavit placed him in Christiana and later in Kgomotso Village.
He accused Maribe of relying on the disputed process to present himself before ANC structures as the legitimate Ward 20 branch chairperson.
The fight has moved into the ANC’s councillor selection process.
Berend alleges that two people were offered money to vote for Maribe as the party’s ward councillor candidate.

He said they wanted to submit affidavits but feared for their safety. “They are afraid,” he said, claiming Maribe travelled with armed bodyguards.
Berend has asked Mbalula’s office to intervene and provide protection if the witnesses are required to testify.
The branch dispute is running alongside another controversy, this one involving R35 000 allegedly donated by a contractor for community projects.

Residents accuse Maribe of taking the money. They say they no longer trust him to represent the ward.
Maribe dismissed the accusations and challenged his critics to report alleged wrongdoing through the proper channels. “If they say I stole the money, they know what they should do,” he said.

He said his election was above board. “I am a legitimately elected branch chairperson of Ward 20. They cannot do anything about it.”
He accused his opponents of trying to fight internal ANC battles through the media. “This is politics,” he said.
“They have sent their submissions to Mbalula and we responded accordingly. I have been accused of all sorts of things.
“I am not going to flinch a bit.”

Bongani Mdakane