ANC Branch Leader Found Guilty of Assault Gets Nominated for Ward Councillor Position
- ANC branch leader Thabang Setona is among four people who have been nominated to run in the next local government elections
- Setona was found guilty of assault after kicking a woman in front of Luthuli House during a protest in 2018
- The ANC says Setona is not a suitable candidate for the nomination because of his criminal record
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ANC branch leader Thabang Setona, who was found guilty of assaulting a woman outside Luthuli House during a 2018 protest, has been nominated as an ANC ward councillor in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
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According to News24, Setona was filmed kicking a 52-year-old woman, Olivia Makete, during a Black First Land First (BLF) march to Luthuli House in February 2018.
Setona was then found guilty of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He was handed a one-year suspended prison sentence.
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Setona's ANC branch nominated him as one of four people to run for councillor in the approaching local government elections over the weekend. He was nominated to run for Ward Councillor in Ward 62 in Hillbrow, according to The Citizen.
Despite this nomination, the ANC says Setona does not meet the requirements to run for Ward Councillor, stating that his nomination is inconsequential.
ANC Johannesburg spokesperson Sasabona Manganye, said that Setona did not meet the requirements because he was criminally charged and found guilty by a court of law.
“Part of the requirements is that people must have not been found guilty of any crime,” Manganye said.
Manganye added that the provincial list committee would still listen to objections in regards to nominations. According to Mail & Guardian, the ANC adopted its step-aside resolution in 2017 after the issue of corruption was raised at the ANC’s Nasrec conference.
The step-aside resolution requires ANC party leaders charged for crimes to step aside from their position until they have been cleared.
According to The Citizen, the ANC had 28 members charged with crimes or found guilty in 2016.
From the President's desk: SA's state-owned companies are mostly seen as corrupt
In a report by Briefly News, President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa's state-owned enterprises have been linked with state capture, financial mismanagement and inefficiency in the public eye.
In his weekly open letter to the public, Ramaphosa stated that these companies have been failing to meet their mandates while also requiring Government bailouts on a regular basis.
According to Business Tech, Ramaphosa said that government is now on a mission to turn these companies around by rooting out corruption, improving their governance and enabling state-owned enterprises the role they should be playing to drive economic growth and employment creation.
Ramaphosa emphasised the importance of state-owned companies, saying that public ownership of these enterprises will drive economic growth and transformation.
“This is particularly the case in the delivery of public goods such as electricity and water, where SOEs are able to pursue a developmental mandate in the public interest as opposed to a purely commercial one,” wrote Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa also wrote that the government would be undertaking a number of measures to strengthen state-owned enterprises so they can produce the results the country needs and expects.
"These reforms are not intended to weaken the public sector or to reduce its role, but to make it a more dynamic and effective part of our economy," he wrote.
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Source: Briefly News
