“We are the only transparent organisation among all political parties”.
Community members in Kokstad and Franklin are divided after residents burned African National Congress (ANC) regalia while calling for their current ward councillor to step down on Sunday, 7 June 2026.
The ANC Kokstad Regional Secretary, Qiniso Mnguni, said the African National Congress is an organisation for people who embrace democracy. “We are the only transparent organisation among all political parties. We have communities that determine their own leadership. At the African National Congress, we always invite community members 14 days before meetings, and we make it a point that if we focus on a certain ward, then all community members present should be from that particular ward,” said Mnguni.
Mnguni added that candidates are first presented to the branch and then to the community. “People are angry and may make emotional decisions, whereas there are dispute processes that can be taken to the province if people are not happy with their candidates. However, we cannot allow anti-ANC individuals to damage the image and dignity of this party,” he said.
The current Ward 2 councillor, Bheki Nozaza, indicated that the ward candidate election process had been concluded. “People support the ANC before they support us, the councillors. As we all know, the election process is conducted between the Branch General Meeting (BGM) and the community, with anyone who is registered on the voters’ roll having the right to vote and choose a leader they believe is suitable to lead,” said Nozaza.
In addition, Nozaza confirmed that he was aware of the incident involving the burning of ANC regalia by some residents. “There is an on-going investigation regarding the matter of the burnt regalia, and since the video went viral, the province will deal with the matter. Our job for now is to bring together all those who were defeated in the elections so that they can come back home and fight together for our flag, our communities and our future,” he said. “We do not want to see our comrades being misled and encouraged to engage in wrongdoing by people who have no interest in seeing progress in what we do. It is unfortunate that the perpetrators are often linked to drug use,” he added.
