'It is painful to lead as a woman' — Eastern Cape mayor accuses ANC comrades of bullying her
Noncedo Zonke
Image: SUPPLIED
An Eastern Cape ANC mayor has asked the party’s national bosses to intervene, saying her very own comrades bullied her and time and again strong-armed her into breaking the law.
“This is one of the hardest letters I have ever had to write,” Inxuba Yethemba mayor Noncedo Zonke said in a scathing letter she sent to the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, and Women’s League president Sisisi Tolashe on Wednesday.
Inxuba Yethemba municipality is responsible for towns such as Middelburg and Nxuba, formerly known as Cradock.
Residents in these areas have in recent months been hit by service delivery challenges, including severe water shortages.
A protest had erupted on Wednesday morning in Middelburg over these issues, with several roads blocked.
The municipality had also been grappling with a staggering debt of more than R600m owed to Eskom.
In her letter, Zonke said the abuse had been happening in the ANC’s Chris Hani region and that she had often been blamed when communities suffered.
She said it had been painful to lead as a woman in the region and warned her safety was now at risk.
“I am not writing in anger, I am writing in pain,” said Zonke, who confirmed the veracity of the letter when approached by IOL.
“I am writing because I have reached a point where keeping quiet would mean accepting that what is happening to me is normal — and it is not.
“Comrades, it is painful to lead as a woman in the Eastern Cape's ANC Chris Hani region.
"The difficulty is not the work ... the difficulty is the treatment.”
Zonke said she had constantly been insulted, undermined and verbally attacked by male officials.
She said she had never been taken aside and corrected with "dignity" when she was wrong.
“Never have I been called aside as a comrade to be corrected with dignity, if I was wrong in so many ways. Instead, correction comes through humiliation," she said.
“It breaks something inside you when officials who are supposed to guide you choose to shame you in front of the members of the organisation, who some are even my juniors in accordance to my experience.
"It makes you question yourself, your worth, and sometimes even your strength.”
Zonke said the pressure had intensified when communities protested over service delivery, particularly water shortages.
She said water and sanitation did not fall under her municipality but the Chris Hani District Municipality.
“Our communities are facing real water challenges,” she said.
“Taps are dry ... hospitals and boarding schools are affected.”
She said what had hurt most was when communities protested, she would be blamed.
“Instead of support, I am accused of mobilising communities against officials — as if people protest for fun,” Zonke wrote.
“People protest because they are desperate.”
Zonke said her municipality had received no allocation from the district for water support in the current financial year and that the suffering being experienced was a direct result of that.
“Despite not being a water services authority, I could not stand by and watch people suffer,” she wrote.
“Instead I made this council procure a water truck because humanity demanded it. Instead of being supported, this is politicised.”
She also said she had been pressured to take decisions that could have legal consequences.
“There are times when I am pressured to take decisions that have legal consequences.
"When I refuse to act outside the law, I am labelled as ‘defiant’.
“Since when did obeying legislation become rebellion?”
Zonke said instability inside council had been driven from within.
She said two motions of no confidence had been brought against her by ANC councillors and that these moves had been encouraged by regional officials.
Zonke said the situation had spiralled out of control and that she had begun fearing for her life.
“To repeatedly associate my name with violent incidents without evidence creates a narrative that puts my life at risk,” she wrote.
“These are extremely serious accusations.
"They are not only false — they are dangerous.”
She said being linked to incidents such as arson and gunpoint threats had exposed her to retaliation and harm.
“I am a mother, I am a woman and I am a public representative,” she said.
“I should not have to live in fear because political differences are turned into character destruction.”
Approached for comment, ANC Women’s League secretary-general Nokuthula Nqaba said she was working on the matter.
“We are a caring organisation ... her pain is our pain and her voice must be listened to,” Nqaba said.
There had long been calls for Zonke to step down.
The municipality had been described as one in crisis and on the verge of total collapse.
DA MPL Heinrich Muller said only one of the municipality’s five tractors had been operational and that none of its municipal tipper trucks had been in working condition.
He said residents had been subjected to unreliable electricity services, marked by frequent power outages, broken streetlights and unchecked electricity losses and theft.
Muller demanded Zonke’s resignation.
“Crumbling roads and clogged stormwater drains are widespread on nearly every street,” he said.
He said daily water outages, often without explanation, had become the norm, leaving hundreds of residents dependent on water tankers.
“Furthermore, the unchecked flow of raw sewage through the streets and into the Great Fish River is not only a public health hazard but also a blatant environmental crime that can no longer be tolerated,” Muller said.
ANC insiders alleged Zonke had recently declined intervention from the party's Chris Hani region when it wanted to step in and assist.
IOL