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Johannesburg – The ANCYL in Limpopo claims its provincial secretary was forced to sign off on a branch general meeting at gunpoint.
The league said David "Che" Selane was threatened by gun-wielding security guards from a company allegedly contracted to the Mogalakwena Local Municipality.
Selane was deployed by the ANC in the province to the Aluta Makapan branch to oversee the nomination process in the Waterberg region ahead of a fiercely contested regional elective conference.
The provincial league claims the incident is the fifth of its kind.
"We learnt of the same hostile and paramilitary situation in wards 12, 24, 26 and 30 of Mogalakwena sub-region on Monday,” said the ANCYL’s Matome Moremi in a statement.
Four of the ANC’s regions in Limpopo are due to hold regional elective conferences and branch general meetings are a key component of the process as delegates nominate leaders and select delegates to attend the conference to vote for a new leadership.
Violence at other meetings
ANC branches are in the spotlight with several leaders urging branch members to resist the temptation of being bought and used in factional battles ahead of the national elective conference in December.
Violence had erupted at other branch meetings, with numerous reports of intimidation and attacks in Tshwane and KwaZulu-Natal in the lead up to the 2016 municipal elections.
The youth league, which has asked ANC Limpopo secretary Nocks Seabi to investigate the incident, also wants the mayor of Mogalakwena to explain the municipality’s security personnel actions at the meeting.
Moremi said the league would prefer members of the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association to be used for security purposes at branch general meetings instead of private security.
Meanwhile the provincial organiser, Mandla Moropa, has dismissed claims that he was involved in the incident.
The ANCYL in Limpopo in its statement accused him of orchestrating "despotic behaviour” and claimed he was always implicated in wrongdoings within the movement.
Incident not reported to the police
"I saw Che before he left when he was picking up the package. He went to a branch meeting and as to what transpired there, I don't know. He returned the package between 23:00 and midnight, he said nothing to me," Moropa told News24.
"The package" is the envelope that contained the register for those who were due to participate in the meeting, a nomination form for the regional executive committee elections and a list of delegates to attend the conference.
Moropa said Selane returned the envelope with all the documents signed by all relevant parties which, to him, signalled that the meeting had proceeded smoothly.
"If he told me something happened to him there I could have advised him. It should have been raised with the officials and taken to the police," he told News24.
Selane referred News24 to the ANCYL spokesperson when asked about the matter but did admit to not reporting it to the police.
