Mbuso Nwayila
When the election date was announced, the community of Matiko-Xikaya village outside Phalaborwa, Limpopo made it clear to the ANC who their preferred candidate was, and the ruling party listened – or so they thought.
They wanted nothing to do with their current councillor Thompson Nkuna who had been in the same position for 18 years.
Instead their preferred councillor was Lisbeth Mkhabele, who was declared the ANC candidate for the ward after Nkuna withdrew his candidacy. He asked that Mkhabele be put in his place.
Mkhabele underwent all the processes with the ANC and the IEC of becoming a ward councillor candidate.
But when the official candidate list was released, Mkhabele’s name was not on the list – but Nkuna’s name was!
Community members told Scrolla.Africa that they have lost all trust in Nkuna’s leadership as there is no service delivery to show for it.
Mkhabele’s brother said they were shocked as she didn’t withdraw from her position.
He said when they enquired they were told not to worry and that it was the old list before Mkhabele was made a candidate and that the list will be amended after the elections.
Community members are saying that they won’t vote for the ANC if Mkhabele’s name is not on the ballot.
Community member, Again Sithole, said that Mkhabele was used as a decoy to attract more votes for the ANC and the story that they would make the amendments after the election was nonsense.
Sithole said they know that it is a strategy to bring back the man who has never done anything for the ward and they don’t want him.
An attempt to get a comment from Mkhabele was unsuccessful as her protocols do not allow her to engage with us.
The regional spokesperson for the ANC, Peter Ngobeni, described the matter as a human error.
“Unfortunately the name change was not effected, but we want to say that the exclusion was not meant to cause anybody any harm. The IEC had closed the selection process and there was nothing we could do,” Ngobeni said.
