The President of the African Independent Congress stands accused of dumping the project of re-incorporating Matatiele from the province of the Eastern Cape to be administered under the province of KwaZulu Natal. Mandlenkosi Phillip Galo who is the president of the AIC, a political party formed in 2006 to champion the incorporation of Matatiele to KwaZulu Natal is dragged to the Pietermaritzburg high court by his deputy Lulama Maxwell Ntshayisa. Ntshayisa wants the High Court to nullify the second National Congress held on the 27th and 28th of April in Kokstad, KwaZulu Natal where Galo was elected as the president. In an affidavit, Ntshayisa says the Congress was unlawful and unconstitutional. He, therefore, wants the leadership elected in that Congress and its resolutions to be set aside. Galo has filed papers opposing the matter and is going to be heard soon in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. The battle of positions between the two AIC leaders began in last year’s December Congress held in Pretoria. That Congress degenerated into chaos after a disagreement about the candidates and as a consequence, it was forced to be canceled. In an interview, Ntshayisa believes this battle is putting the process of taking Matatiele from Eastern Cape to KwaZulu Natal in jeopardy. “One of the reasons being that Galo is no more interested in the project”, he said. He accused Galo of being bribed by the Ekurhuleni Metro not to continue with this process whilst the other party will assist him in making sure that he keeps his presidential position.
Ntshayisa said Ekurhuleni metro funded the second congress, a congress organized by Galo’s faction that ended up electing him as a president to fulfill that deal. One of the conditions demanded by the AIC to form Ekurhuleni coalition with the ANC was that by May 2018 the process of reversing Matatiele back from Eastern Cape to KwaZulu Natal would be finished. But things are not turning up like that. Ntshayisa said the issue of Matatiele is not even among the bills to be discussed by parliament before the closure of parliament which is on the 18th of this month. Galo is not putting pressure on the ANC to abide by the agreement that made ANC be a leading party in Ekurhuleni. When the pro-KwaZulu Natal group of people were planning the march in town Galo was so sarcastic asking, “why are you doing this because this is discussed in parliament knowing very well that it’s not going to be discussed. He did not even show support by giving information to them”, Ntshayisa alleges.
Commenting about this Galo agreed that Ekurhuleni Metro has funded the transport costs for delegates to come to the second congress but denied that there was a deal between himself and the mayor of Ekurhuleni as alleged by Ntshayisa. “It was an arrangement between the councilors of that municipality and the metro of which we were not part of”, he said. Galo also agreed that he has filed the opposing documents to the court to dismiss Ntshayisa’s claims about the congress that elected him. Turning to the issue of demarcation Galo denied Ntshayisa’s allegations that he is no more interested in the matter.
I am in constant consultation with Jeff Rhadebe who is the convenor of the five-aside of the ANC. He has recently told me that the issue of Matatiele has been delayed because of the slow processes of other municipalities affected by demarcation. “I started the issue of Matatiele to be incorporated from Eastern Cape to KwaZulu Natal, therefore, nothing will ever make me dump the project. People like Ntshayisa are power mongers and their allegations are not new and I am not surprised”, concluded Galo.
