Lekota+concedes+defeat+in+Khutsong,+Sunday+Times



=Lekota concedes defeat in Khutsong=


 * //Minister admits election compromised in troubled area after he is chased out twice and accused of bullying residents//**



Sunday Times, Johannesburg, 26 February 2006

 * NDIVHUHO MAFELA and MOIPONE MALEFANE**

DEFENCE Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has for the first time conceded that conditions in the volatile Khutsong township are not conducive to a free and fair election.

Lekota made this concession in a private conversation with North West Premier Edna Molewa on Friday as his “no-nonsense attitude” towards residents — aggrieved at the Gauteng township’s incorporation into North West — appeared to be further aggravating anger in the area.

Lekota’s determination to ensure that electioneering takes place in Khutsong ended with him and Molewa being held hostage for at least an hour by residents who refused to give them an audience at a local soccer ground on Friday.

It was during this short hostage drama that a dejected Lekota told an equally frustrated Molewa that under prevailing conditions, only a few people would vote if elections were to go ahead.

The two escaped unharmed after police intervened and escorted them out of the township. But not before stones were hurled at their car.

Residents demanded that President Thabo Mbeki — rather than Lekota — come to explain why their area had been incorporated into North West against their wishes.

Lekota responded: “We cannot misuse the President like that.”

This was the second time in less than a week that he had been forced to flee the area.

On Sunday, a heavy police escort had to be called in after residents refused to have Lekota address them.

He was whisked away as stones and missiles were thrown at his entourage.

And a visibly terrified Molewa had arrived at the township on Friday morning before Lekota, with the aim of conducting a door-to-door election campaign, only to be insulted, called a hypocrite and have stones hurled at her convoy.

Yesterday, the area remained on a knife edge, with uncertainty about whether elections would take place.

The Pretoria High Court is expected to rule tomorrow on whether voting should proceed following an urgent application seeking the postponement of the poll in the area.

A series of attempts by the ANC and its alliance partners to calm Khutsong residents failed this week. They met on Tuesday and Wednesday, at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg and in Carletonville, after Lekota had spent the weekend in the township trying to create conditions conducive to proper electioneering and voting.

However, Khutsong residents and some ANC alliance partners are now blaming his “combative” and “bullying” approach for heightening tensions.

He said last Sunday that he had information that teachers were behind the protests and that the government would make sure it dealt with these people.

Two days earlier, an angry Lekota had allegedly approached community leader Jomo Mogale, a teacher, and accused him of spearheading anti-incorporation protests.

Following his snubbing on Sunday, Lekota was back in the area on Monday, this time at a Carletonville hall. He told a handful of ANC local government candidates that voting would proceed and there was no way the government was going to reverse its decision to move Khutsong into North West.

Residents want to remain in Gauteng and their anger over the incorporation has led to a series of violent protests which have rendered the township a “no-go area” for ANC candidates contesting this week’s municipal elections.

At the meeting in Luthuli House on Tuesday, attended by Lekota, SA Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, North West ANC leaders and SACP West Rand leaders, it is understood that Cosatu and the SACP were blunt in their accusation that Lekota’s approach to Khutsong residents could have largely contributed to his hostile reception.

A meeting on Wednesday in Carletonville, attended by Lekota, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, a delegation from the North West and Gauteng governments, Cosatu and the SACP, also failed to resolve the problem.

Delegates spent six hours disagreeing on how the situation could have been averted.

The meeting was called by the ANC to persuade Cosatu and the SACP to mobilise Khutsong residents and make them understand that a decision to remove their area from Gauteng could not be reversed.

An official who attended the meeting told the Sunday Times that the ANC admitted to “messing up” in the handling of the Khutsong situation, although the decision could no longer be reversed.

ANC alliance partners are supporting the residents. Vavi this week said the “mass democratic movement” structures such as Cosatu, SACP and the Congress of South African Students may not mobilise for an ANC victory in Khutsong township unless there was a reversal of the demarcation issue.

The local branch of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union is also at the forefront of resistance to incorporation into North West.

Teaching and schooling in the area had this week ground to a halt as the community went ahead with an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court seeking the postponement of the elections in the area.


 * From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A169382**




 * Sunday Times, Johannesburg,** **26 February 2006**

=So Many Questions…=


 * The ANC chairman Mosioua Lekota is dealing with a revolt of supporters in Khutsong but says elections will go ahead. CHRIS BARRON asked him …**


 * Is it wise for elections to go ahead in such a tense atmosphere?**

We are quite satisfied now that the community is available for elections.


 * Will you take responsibility if anyone is killed or injured?**

Nothing of the sort is going to happen.


 * You think the atmosphere will be conducive to elections?**

We are working on creating that now. Even as I talk to you our activists are in the township, they are in the wards.


 * The Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party say they will not campaign for the ANC.**

No. The structures of Cosatu and the Communist Party said they need time to do further consultations.


 * How badly will this hurt you?**

Even if they decide not to campaign there will be no violence. On that there has been commitment on both sides.


 * What effect will it have on turnout?**

We are satisfied that there will be sufficient people who will vote.


 * Are you surprised at the anger?**

I’m not surprised in the sense that I have picked up that there was a conscious organisation to make people believe things.


 * Has the National Intelligence Agency been asked to investigate?**

I don’t know what the NIA is doing, and even if I knew I would not say because it would not be helpful to whatever work they are doing. Naturally, all the security agencies have the responsibility to make sure that we anticipate any potential criminal activity.


 * But you haven’t asked the NIA to become involved?**

No, that is not my responsibility.


 * Have you been warning community leaders that you would put the NIA on to them?**

I have never once mentioned the name NIA, no way. But I have said to community leaders that the Electoral Act makes certain provisions for the right atmosphere for elections. It requires that we must not allow certain things to be done. And therefore security agencies will act against those breaking the law.


 * Is the protest action we’ve seen legitimate as far as you’re concerned?**

Legitimate protests cannot be prevented. People have got the right to demonstrate. But they don’t have the right to disrupt meetings, or to compel people not to go and vote.


 * Could all this have been prevented if the ANC had listened to the voice of the people?**

I don’t know what you mean, “the ANC should have listened to the voice of the people”. The only body which has authority to amend the Constitution is Parliament. It is misleading to suggest to people that a certain community can tell Parliament where to put the provincial boundaries.


 * Wasn’t it disingenuous, then, to hold public hearings as if their opinion mattered?**

It was always wrong to give that community the impression that they had a compelling power over Parliament. They should have been told right from the beginning that “your views can only have a persuasive effect”.


 * Do you think that holding public hearings gave them the wrong impression?**

I think it was not properly explained to the people, and therefore they understood that once they’d said what they wanted, the law was going to be as what they say.


 * Whose fault is that?**

I don’t know who said what, but it’s quite clear that the people were left with the impression that what they say is what is going to happen.


 * Shouldn’t communities be allowed a say over their future?**

No, please. I don’t agree. When we drew up the provincial boundaries we didn’t have referenda all over the country. This is a power that belongs to Parliament.


 * Then it was misleading to have public hearings?**

I’m not passing a judgment on that issue. Parliament made the decision, looking at the tax base and things like that. To say the communities must be able to decide … those people are only guided by their emotions.


 * Those emotions are understandable, aren’t they?**

You may think so, but Parliament does not think so.


 * From: http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/articles/article.aspx?ID=ST6A169380