Q&A with WC ANC official on backing a child rapist for Garden Route mayor

How important is integrity when looking at coalition partners?

For the ANC integrity is important. We’ll form pro-poor coalitions for the marginalised and vulnerable. Those are basics that all the parties we’ve spoken to have agreed on.

Talking of the vulnerable, how serious are you about gender-based violence (GBV)?

We call it a pandemic that we have been consistently fighting and consistently in the forefront of fighting.

So you’d describe your policy on GBV as one of zero tolerance?

Yes, we can’t tolerate people that are perpetrators, or that have perpetrated, GBV. Last year we were very fortunate to have a men’s dialogue with the president about the scourge of GBV, and the ANC in the province has fostered debates about the role that men can play in curbing GBV.

So how can you form a coalition with a party led by a convicted child rapist, and agree to make him the mayor?

When we are doing coalition talks, we do not tell other parties who they must put forward. Just like any other party cannot dictate to us who our mayoral candidate must be. They go through a stringent interview process and so forth.

But you were happy to make a convicted child rapist the mayor?

We only found out afterwards about this particular issue.

Shouldn’t the ANC have done its homework on him before making him the mayor?

We didn’t know that that party [the Independent Civic Organisation of SA] was going to put him forward. And as I have said, when we are having agreements with other parties we cannot dictate who they must put forward. But of course this issue is receiving urgent attention from our side.

Have you demanded that he step down?

The thing is our coalitions are done at a national level.

How can people believe the ANC is serious about fighting GBV after this?

Someone can say, I’ll work with you and these are my demands, and then you’ll say yes, without knowing what is the history of that particular person.

The moment you found out, shouldn’t you have insisted he go?

The talks were done at a national level, so it’s for us to report it and take it forward to national.

Do you think you’ve let the victims of GBV down?

By forming this coalition?

By helping a convicted child rapist to become mayor?

As I’ve stated, we did not know it was going to be him being the mayor.

What is the Western Cape ANC’s policy on corruption?

The ANC is anti-corruption. We have stated, especially because we’re in a state of rebuilding and renewal in the Western Cape, that we have zero tolerance for that. Zero tolerance.

Are you aware that the person you made deputy mayor of Kannaland is a convicted fraudster?

No. As I’ve stated we don’t know people’s records.