No party for Gqabi supporters

A GROUP of Uitenhage ANC members are livid that they could not attend the party’s 103rd birthday celebrations at the weekend, claiming that they were ejected from the buses ferrying supporters to Cape Town. They said yesterday this was because they had voted for independent candidate Andile Gqabi and not the ANC’s Mazwi Mini in last year’s by-election in KwaNobuhle.

They said yesterday this was because they had voted for independent candidate Andile Gqabi and not the ANC's Mazwi Mini in last year's by-election in KwaNobuhle.

Mini has denied this. He said the group was drunk and unruly and that other passengers on board the buses wanted them left behind because of their behaviour.

Gqabi supporter Fuzile Peters, 33, who was one of the 12 at a meeting yesterday, said he was pulled off the bus on Mini's instruction.

"An [MK veteran] manhandled me and pulled me from the bus. When I was off the bus, he started kicking me so I ran.

"While pulling us out of the bus, they were saying: 'All Gqabi's supporters must not be in the bus'.

"Mazwi was the one pointing at us and instructing the [MK veterans] to pull us out," he said.

 - Mkhululi Ndamase and Mzwandile Bambiso