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- The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay has instructed Andile Lungisa to resign from the subway board and as a member of a branch task force in his region.
- The regional task force says it will also ask the PEC to temporarily suspend its membership in the ANC.
- Lungisa has vowed to fight this, labeling it an agenda of thieves who stole Covid-19 resources.
Beleaguered Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) councilor Andile Lungisa has said he will fight an offer from the ANC regional task force (RTT) to remove him from both the council and a member of the district branch 2 task force. .
Lungisa has called the move a thieves’ agenda, collaborating with his provincial counterparts to fight factional battles.
This came after a letter RTT wrote to Lungisa on Sunday was leaked to the media. In it, he was asked to resign both charges within 72 hours.
ANC regional coordinator Luyolo Nqakula also informed Lungisa of the decision taken to request the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC) to suspend his membership.
“I wrote to the provincial secretary requesting the PEC through its structures to promulgate rule 25.70 of the ANC constitution, to temporarily suspend its membership with immediate effect,” Nqakula wrote in the short letter.
He gave the 2018 court rulings against Lungisa as the reason for the decisions. In 2018, the former youth league leader was convicted of assault with intent to cause serious bodily injury.
This was in connection with a 2016 NMB council session, in which Lungisa smashed a glass jug on the head of former mayor’s committee member for transportation Rano Kayser.
“It is a matter that the structure has been dealing with for a long time, a collective conclusion related to this matter was reached. You will see what has been leaked to you, it is a collective expression,” Nqakula said of the letter.
However, Lungisa has denied this, describing the move as a search for political expediency.
Tenders
He told News24 that he was under attack because he was among the ANC councilors who went to open a case with the police for the theft of Covid-19 resources in June.
Lungisa said:
This is part of the people protecting corruption in Nelson Mandela Bay, who are assisted at the provincial level. I am one of those councilors who went to the Humewood police station to open corruption cases against those who stole money from the PPE (personal protective equipment), those who received bribes from the PPE.
Lungisa, who resigned as MMC last month, said he did so after he was ordered to do so by the ANC at the national level, through the office of Secretary General Ace Magashule.
He accused Nqakula of having received R300,000 from the Covid-19 tenders.
Lungisa said that the provincial disciplinary committee had cleared him of any wrongdoing, arguing that the current matter was exactly the same one he had already been cleared of.
“I was acquitted in August. Now, a few weeks later, a letter with the same content is sent and leaked to The Herald. You cannot charge a person twice on the same subject. This does not even happen with hardcore criminals. “Lungisa said.
He said that the ANC had not informed him directly of the decisions made.
“I will respond once I receive the letter from the organization,” he continued.
Lungisa said the move to suspend his membership was pointless, as the ANC’s resolve to step aside and be held accountable when accused of corruption was not related to his “muggle issue.”
“My issue has nothing to do with corruption. There is no basis for this,” argued the former leader of the ANC Youth League.
Poor
He told News24 that the ANC PEC was collaborating with an illegal RTT, which had been in operation for more than a year and had not launched any branches.
“I am witnessing people accused of robbing the poor who come for Andile Lungisa. This letter is a main cover, to also ensure that they remove Lungisa’s membership from the ANC,” he said.
Lungisa said this was nothing more than the thieves’ agenda and promised to continue fighting them.
“We will never abandon the fight to clean up our organization. This fight cannot be one of factions. Those who have stolen money must face music,” he said.
Nqakula denied Lugisa’s claims and told News24 that he was not employed by the state.
He told News24:
That is total nonsense, nothing more than smear to tarnish my name, reputation and integrity. They went to the police station to open a case against me. No investigation was carried out and no charges were brought against me.
Nqakula also dismissed claims that RTT did not communicate its decisions to Lungisa.
“He’s lying. I sent him the letter and I have the proof, not my PA, I sent the letter myself,” he said.
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