[imagesource: Twitter/ANC]

It’s hard being an ANC politician these days.

All you want to do is have a lekker jol and then the poverty-stricken locals show up to steal your weave.

This pretty much sums up how the ANC Women’s League kicked off their Eastern Cape Leg of the ruling syndicate’s 111th birthday celebrations.

What there is to celebrate is up for debate, but the program promised a live performance by none other than Fikile Mbulula himself. As the kids say, this party was going to be lit.

The celebrations were however rudely interrupted when residents of Komani rocked up and began asking questions about the decaying state of their beloved town.

And despite their mayor having assured residents that he was ‘very concerned about the state of infrastructure and electricity crisis’, the lack of service delivery and the utter failure of municipal officials have left residents understandably frustrated and angry.

It was during all the festivities that Provincial task team member Nokuku Princess Dube stepped too close to the fence keeping the mob out, and a local snatched her weave from her head before disappearing into the crowd.

“I was nervous at that stage of the standoff because those people surrounded me on all sides and some of them even poured alcohol on my back,”

Adding insult to hair-pulling, the residents continued to hurl abuse at the ruling elite as authorities scrambled to retrieve the stolen weave.

“You bloody thieves. Go with your overdone make-up. We are hungry.”

Lucky for us, the whole ordeal was captured on camera.

Naturally, the League of Back-Up Singers was horrified and labelled the attack insensitive, humiliating, offensive, and indicative of a society struggling with gender-based violence.

This appears to be the only time in recent memory that they took violence against women seriously. The entire episode would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.

Komani is a town that has been around for longer than the ANC. It is in its 170th year, but thanks to inept management, it has become one of the worst-run municipalities in the country. It has survived two world wars but it now seems the town might not survive the ANC.

The municipality is drowning in debt and owes Eskom R743 million. And for over a month now, large parts of Komani and surrounding areas have been without power due to faulty connections and ageing infrastructure.

According to the Civil and Ratepayers Association of Enoch Mgijima (CRAEM), the arrogance displayed by choosing this town to celebrate the party’s birthday has angered the locals, and rightly so.

Provincial task team member Nokuku Princess Dube did however get her weave back without the need to assemble a provincial task team to investigate, and along with her comrades excitedly announced the return of the missing hair to the partying delegates as the police shooed the angry mob away.

ANC Women’s League – 1, Angry Voting Fodder – 0.

[source: news24]