ANC confident of win in Bojanala, North West
The ANC in the Bojanala region of the North West province was confident of retaining its wards in the coming municipal election, regional secretary Tokyo Mataboge said on Tuesday.
“Election have started. As the ANC we are going to defend the region [Bojanala] and our ward. We are going to win more as the Rustenburg municipality will increase to 45 wards,” he said.
“Rustenburg is the home of the ANC. We won 90 percent of the wards in Rustenburg during the general election,” he added.
Flanked by deputy regional chairperson Buti Makhongela, Mataboge said the ANC would establish mining election teams to visit all mine hostels and shafts.
He said: “These shafts are in wards. The election teams will advise the ANC of the situation. We have approximately 35 shafts [and] most of them are in Rustenburg.”
Mataboge noted that opposition parties, in particular the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), won only Ward 24 in the Rustenburg municipality in the 2014 general election. Ward 24 is made up of Freedom Park, Impala Hostel, 2 Shaft Hostel.
Of the EFF success, Mataboge said: “The EFF won because of the violence in that area. People did not come to vote fearing for their safety.”
He said peace and stability had returned to Freedom Park and Marikana. These areas were no go areas for the ANC before the general election last year.
Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula was whisked out of Freedom Park in a police Nyala during an election campaign after residents attacked ANC activists and torched a municipal building and councillors’ houses. In Marikana the ANC local office was burnt down in Wonderkop.
“The situation has calmed down. People freely wear their ANC T-shirts without intimidation of confrontation,” Mataboge said.
In the run up to the elections, the EFF had publicly declared that it was going to win Bojanala and Rustenburg municipality, and the Democratic Alliance had also positioned itself to take over Rustenburg, Tlokwe (Potchefstroom) and Matlosana (Klerksdorp).
“The EFF was rooted in Lethabong, Kanana and Marikana. They have faded out in Kanana. In Marikana, they used Amcu [Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union]. In Lethabong there are few of them, and the ANC still command 90 percent of voters in Rustenburg,” said Mataboge.
Mataboge said the ANC in the Bojanala Region had not been invited to the third anniversary of the Marikana tragedy, to be held on Sunday.
“The ANC in the region has not been invited. I do not know whether the province is invited,” he said.
The ANC has never been part of the commemoration of the Marikana tragedy, with locals saying they believed that the ruling party had a hand in the death of 34 mineworkers.
EFF leader Julius Malema has previously accused South African deputy president and ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC of killing people in Marikana.
Thirty-four mineworkers were killed in a confrontation with the police on August 16, 2012 at a koppie near the Nkaneng informal settlement, near Wonderkop in the Marikana Belt. The week before the mineworkers lost their lives, ten other people, including two policemen and two security guards were killed. -ANA
(File photo: Gallo Images)