As the momentum builds for the local government elections, violence has again characterised contestation for power and positions among ANC members in various regions across the country.
Several branch meetings sitting to nominate ward candidates for the local government elections have seen tensions reach boiling point, with ANC members beating one another, while others were shot.
In the latest incident, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed shame and anger on Monday over the violence and chaos which broke out at an ANC branch nomination meeting in Lephalale, Limpopo, where two people were shot and 14 left seriously injured as rival factions fought over mayoral preferences.
Ramaphosa slammed those responsible for the violence as "thugs who just want to plunder the resources of our people”.
But the incident is one of many such violent conducts in recent times that are mostly driven by ANC factions jostling for power.
In Lephalale, two groups aligned to current Lephalale mayor Jack Maeko and his challenger Aron Mokgehle were behind the tensions during branch nominations.
ANC member Kemotho Daniel Nkanyane has since been arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder, while a number of other members were facing other charges relating to the violence that took place.
Lephalale sub-regional secretary Alpheus Thulare said Nkanyane, who appeared in the Phalala magistrate's court on Monday, would also be facing disciplinary action, while others who were involved in the violence were being identified.
This is not the first time the party has promised to take steps against those alleged to be behind violent incidents at its meetings, yet evidence of demonstrable action is hard to come by.
ANC disciplinary committee chairperson Mildred Oliphant said the party had dealt with some of the cases of violence at national level but redirected further questions on specifics to deputy secretary- general Jessie Duarte.
“This year we dealt with some of these matters but the SGO is the one that communicates about the specifics of the cases and publicise them,” she said.
Duarte attributed some of the violence to the increased participation that involved those who were not ANC members.
“The ANC processes are meant to encourage public participation in the selection of public representatives. Many of such processes have gone smoothly without any incident of disruption of violence. We have, however, observed a number of violent incidents and disruption in some of our meetings, which is a serious issue of concern,” she said.
Duarte said the party had called on its lower structures not to spare those who were found to have instigated violence. “We have directed all provinces to institute appropriate disciplinary action against anyone found to be involved in acts of violence,” she said.
Political analyst Ongama Mtimka said there was increasing desperation within the ANC to secure the shrinking and limited opportunities through the use of elimination tactics and extra democratic manoeuvres, including violence.
“Remember, even though council offices are relatively small in terms of the public purse of a municipality, they still play a very important role from a gatekeeping perspective in terms of opportunities for advancement in a ward and municipality. It is part of a political decay that is associated with the rise in patronage politics,” Mtimka said
He said ANC leaders were currently caught in-between their duty to enforce discipline on the one hand and winning and keeping contested power bases ahead of the elections on the other.
“The two are almost antithetical in the sense that, even for those who are champions of the ideals of renewal, part of pursuing the ideals means losing power and allowing yourself to lose your mechanisms of control. The extent to which individuals can do that is really constrained when it comes to money and power,” he said.
In his 2017 organisational report to the party’s national elective conference as the then ANC secretary- general, the party’s current national chairperson Gwede Mantashe warned that the growing violence within the party over positions was damaging the ANC brand.
“The perception is that the ANC is a violent organisation, as comrades are prepared to kill for positions,” Mantashe said.
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