Former ANC councillor Andile Lili wants disciplinary charges against him and Loyiso Nkohla for poo dumping withdrawn.
|||Cape Town - Former ANC councillor Andile Lili wants disciplinary charges against him and councillor Loyiso Nkohla withdrawn by the party because he believes it will prejudice their criminal case.
Lili and Nkohla appeared before the party’s provincial disciplinary committee on Saturday at the Ritz Hotel in Sea Point for their role in the so-called poo protests. The hearing was postponed to next month.
The pair are charged with bringing the party into disrepute by dumping human faeces at the Provincial Legislature and at Cape Town International Airport. Lili and Nkohla, members of the ANC’s Dullah Omar region, allegedly led the group which dumped human faeces at the steps of the legislature on June 3 and at Cape Town International Airport on June 25.
Dullah Omar secretary Vuyiso Tyhalisisu said the hearing had to be postponed because their representative was not a member of the ANC.
“Rules of the party clearly state that a representative has to be a member of the ANC and in good standing,” he said. Tyhalisisu said Lili and Nkohla, through their representative, had applied for the charges to be withdrawn.
He said the postponement was also to give the committee an opportunity to respond to the application. The disciplinary committee would sit again in two weeks’ time but a date would be determined on Monday, he said.
“The evidence we will have to provide at the hearing is the same as we would produce for our criminal case. I believe that will leak our evidence. It will prejudice our (criminal) case. We were hoping they would wait for the criminal case to be finalised before proceeding,” Lili said.
He claims that some ANC leaders in the province were “pushing” for them to be disciplined to make a “political statement”.
“Even with President Jacob Zuma, I don’t remember him facing the ANC disciplinary committee while he had a criminal case against him (pending). The other thing I don’t get is why we are the only people facing charges when there are many ANC members involved in the protests.”
But Lili is hopeful that the hearing will be handled fairly.
At the time of taking part in the protests, Lili was suspended by the ANC for bringing the party into disrepute. This followed his expulsion from the City of Cape Town for breaching the code of conduct for councillors. He is challenging that decision at the Western Cape High Court.
Nkohla was given a three-year suspended sentence last year after he and a group of ANC Youth League members disrupted President Jacob Zuma’s centenary speech at the Good Hope Centre.
xolani.koyana@inl.co.za
Cape Times