Political storm brews as Emfuleni mayor fights ANC recall decision

Mayor Sipho Radebe battles recall as ANC stresses deployment rules amid Emfuleni turmoil. ANC Gauteng coordinator Hope Papo has weighed in on the brewing political storm in the troubledEmfuleni municipality, framing Mayor Sipho Radebe’s recall as routine party procedure rather than a reflection of his leadership. Papo explained that decisions around who holds public office are handled internally by regional and provincial ANC structures.

He stressed that deployment decisions are separate from service delivery assessments. Using his own experience as an example, Papo explained why these matters are handled internally. “At some point, I was an MEC for health in Gauteng.

The organisation came to me and said to me, I have to not be an MEC in the new term of 2014 to 2019 because there must be six women MECs. Must I go to the organisation and say there must be hands off me or something like that? Deployment and redeployment is not a matter where you apply for a job and then you then say when there’s a change, some people must then intervene.

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No!” He added that by underscoring ANC discipline and the expectation for members to accept organisational decisions. “We must actually send a message to all ANC members who are chairpersons, chief whips, MMCs, MECs, that deployment is not a matter, which is a mass discussion, for mass discussion. When you are deployed, there’s no discussion.

When there’s a change, you must accept that there’s going to be a change, because the organisation has got particular decisions which it’s actually taking. This is the discipline we expect from all public representatives of the ANC,” Papo said.

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