The suspension of seven ANC members linked to recent sanitation protests in the Cape was the result of a provincial government probe, the DA said.
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Cape Town - The suspension of seven ANC members linked to recent sanitation protests in Cape Town was the result of a provincial government investigation, the DA said on Wednesday.
“I am convinced that if it were not for the investigation by the provincial government and the unequivocal identification of the culprits, the seven would probably still have been members of the ANC,” Western Cape Democratic Alliance leader Ivan Meyer said.
There have been at least a dozen incidents of human waste being dumped in front of buildings, at the airport, or on city highways over the past four months.
Last week, Western Cape premier Helen Zille issued a list of 11
people she claimed were part of an ANC Youth League “task team” leading a campaign to make Cape Town ungovernable through various protests.
She said the “ringleaders” had links with the ANC and the ANCYL.
“We have been gathering information about the ringleaders of the faeces attacks. Today, we are releasing that information, as well as supporting video footage,” she said at the time.
She called on the ANC to act against the people on the list and to subject them to disciplinary hearings.
The information on the 11 had also been handed to the police “for further investigation”.
The ANC in the province suspended seven of its members on a temporary basis on Tuesday.
“This is the result of continuous defiance of the organisational instruction to desist from engaging in activities that bring the ANC into disrepute,” provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile said.
“They are not to take part in meetings of the ANC or speak on its behalf.”
Mjongile said the suspensions were linked to the sanitation protests.
The men are Jaji Diniso, Sthembele Majova, Thembela Mbanjwa, Yanga Mjingwana, Bongani Ngcombolo, Loyiso Nkohla, and Bongile Zanazo.
Nkohla is an ANC councillor.
He and Andile Lili, a former councillor and provincial ANCYL leader, had already appeared before the regional disciplinary committee, Mjongile said.
The others would appear before the committee within 30 days.
Lili was expelled as a councillor in March after being found guilty of taking part in the illegal demolition of houses and for making derogatory comments to Khayelitsha residents.
The ANC suspended him for bringing the party into disrepute.
He is challenging the expulsion in the Western Cape High Court.
Nkohla was given a three-year suspended sentence last year for disrupting President Jacob Zuma’s centenary speech at the Good Hope Centre. - Sapa