WATCH | ANC branch leader stabbed‚ chairs fly at Port Elizabeth meeting

An ANC branch meeting in Wells Estate near Port Elizabeth turned violent on Sunday‚ which saw members beaten up and branch leader Thandolwethu Gebengana assaulted and stabbed.

HeraldLIVE reported on Monday that Gebengana sustained two stab wounds in his back and he was also hit with a glass object above his right eye.

The chaos broke out at a branch general meeting (BGM) at the Wells Estate Community Hall on Sunday afternoon where members were drawing up a nominations list for MPs and MPLs ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Gebengana was rushed to Dora Ngiza Hospital where he received multiple stitches.

He opened a case at the Swartkops police station.

Gebengana alleged that a group of young boys led by a woman‚ Mandisa Masiki‚ entered the hall carrying knives‚ beer bottles and wooden planks.

Masiki is alleged to be part of a parallel branch structure in Ward 60.

Gebengana said: “They entered the hall just as we were busy with registration… Somehow they started hitting the older women who had arrived early at the hall.

“There’s nothing more hurtful than seeing a youth hitting an elderly woman.

“When I tried to intervene‚ they came for me and I was hit with a bottle or a glass and I must have blacked out for a bit but when I woke up‚ I was rushed to the hospital by the ward councillor [Mvuzo Mbelekane].”

Masiki confirmed there were two ANC branch executive structures in Ward 60.

According to her‚ the rightful chairman is Nomgqibelo Tyumbu.

She denied there were any knives or bottles carried by the people she came with to the venue.

“They are lying and exaggerating. Why would people bring knives to a meeting? Why would they bring glasses to a meeting? They just hit each other with chairs‚” Masiki said.

She added that it was‚ in fact‚ Gebengana who started the altercation‚ which she labelled the “BGM festival of flying chairs”.

- HeraldLIVE