Caretaker Derrick Gleeson of ANC political-training farm in court for assaulting farm woman and workers

POTCHEFSTROOM -- Derrick Gleeson 52, caretaker of ruling African National Congress' 'political training farm' Dakawa Buffelshoek NW arrested for attacking farm-woman, pointing a firearm, kicking and assaulting her and her farm=workers, cursing them and locking them up without water for two days. LOCAL RESIDENTS CLAIMS: Potchefstroom. – May 7 2014 - Derrick Gleeson, 52, the caretaker of a political training farm of the ruling ANC-party in North West province, has to appear in court next week, charged with attacking a local farm woman and her workers who came looking for straying lifestock and found it at the ANC-training farm. The incident occurred on 16 December 2013. Local residents also claim that Gleeson - who runs the farm Dakawa next to the Vaal River's Buffelshoek region, is 'conspiring with the local police which runs child-trafficking- and livestock-rustling syndicates." He is expected to appear next week in Potchefstroom magistrate's court on charges of serious assault, pointing a firearm and crimen injuria. This was confirmed by SAPS colonel Sabata Mokgwabone, the regional spokesman. He said the complainant, an unidentified local farm woman, was searching for her missing livestock with her workers when their search led them to the ANC-farm. When they inquired about the livestock on the farm which the woman identified as her cattle, the woman and her workers were threatened with a firearm, they were kicked and cursed and locked up for two days without water. According to the complaint, Gleeson had then taken the woman's cattle-herd to a nearby road and their drovers chased the herd back to the woman's farm. e huis ge­stap. Hulle het die hasepad gekies nadat Gleeson glo ’n geweer op hulle gerig en gedreig het om hulle te skiet. The complainant told the police in her complaint that Gleeson allegedly had showed up at her farm, armed with a hacking tool, demanding money for the spinach her (stolen) cattle had eaten on 'his farm'. Gleeson denies the claims, saying he 'did not own a firearm and that his farm-workers merely chased away people who entered the property illegally.' The man lives on the farm since 2010. It is owned by the ruling African National Congress, reportedly intended to build a 'political school' there. The ANC head of security Paul Langa says the Gleeson incident 'is being investigated'. Boere Krisis Aksie May 7 2014 ANC political training schools intended to 'correct wayward members': background: Setumo Stone, 10 juli THE African National Congress (ANC) has finally identified a site where its long-mooted political school will be built, the party’s North West provincial chairman, Supra Mahumapelo, says. Mr Mahumapelo told a group of ANC members on Monday night in ward 8 of the Tlokwe municipality that the school, meant primarily to correct wayward members, would be built on a farm near the Potchefstroom-to-Johannesburg road. But as he was speaking, rebellion was already brewing in nearby ward 9, where a group of disgruntled party members were waiting for the provincial leadership to explain last week’s sacking of 14 ANC councillors in Tlokwe. These councillors last month participated for the second time in the embarrassing replacement of ANC mayor Maphetle Maphetle by Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Annette Combrink. Expulsions and political education have often been the ANC’s answer to the growing incidence of rebellion within party ranks. The Tlokwe 14 add to the growing list of estranged members since the ANC’s Mangaung conference in December, where at least 156 were recorded as expelled or suspended. Strikingly, political education has seemingly remained more talk than action. In 2010, after being found guilty of comparing President Jacob Zuma to former president Thabo Mbeki, Julius Malema was expected to undergo political education. But this never happened and the former ANC Youth League president was thrown out of the party last year for "ill-discipline". Recently suspended former North West ANC provincial secretary Kabelo Mataboge was due to be mentored as part of his "rehabilitation". A month later, those close to him say they do not know who the mentor will be. The name of ANC veteran Pallo Jordan has been bandied about. But Mr Jordan has told Business Day that he has never been approached. Early signs are that this re-education is also unlikely to happen. Last week, when the ANC fired the "Tlokwe rebels", two of those who participated in Mr Maphetle’s ousting for the first time, in November last year, were spared after showing remorse. North West ANC acting provincial secretary Gordon Kegakilwe said the pair would be given political education. Asked whether there was a guarantee the duo would change their ways, Mr Kegakilwe said: "We must trust." With the ANC in North West close to implosion, "trust" might not be enough. This year alone, two provincial officials have been suspended, two mayors have been fired but refused to step down, councillors have threatened to quit, and three MEC s have been recalled. If it is a solution, the North West is in dire need of political education to save the ANC from itself. Mr Mahumapelo says the party conducted two political schools with ANC councillors in Tlokwe after Mr Maphetle was first reinstated in February. The first, which sat for "six hours", he says, was conducted by ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte. The second was conducted by ANC national executive committee member Humphrey Mmemezi, who is infamous for buying a painting at a McDonald’s outlet using public funds, before he was fired as housing MEC in Gauteng. Mr Maphetle’s case has also seen the ANC speaking with a forked tongue. At its national conference in Mangaung, the party resolved that members with a criminal cloud over their heads should step aside and be investigated by the party’s integrity committee. But while a criminal case has been opened by the DA against the embattled mayor, the party in North West seems to have closed ranks around him. "He is noble. He has not done anything wrong," says ANC provincial spokesman Kenny Morolong. Mr Morolong says the provincial integrity committee is yet to be finalised. The party has charged that the DA irregularly appointed a company, Nexus, which dug up dirt on Mr Maphetle — leading to the criminal investigation. Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti, also deployed by the ANC in North West, says it is up to the integrity committee of the ANC to call Mr Maphetle in and seek an explanation on the allegations levelled against him. Mr Mahumapelo says the ANC recognises only Mr Maphetle as the mayor of Tlokwe. What is clear is that the factional battles in the ANC — which often affect the functioning of government — are conducted on behalf of senior party leaders. It therefore makes no sense when the top brass speaks about political education to project themselves as being above these internal disruptions, as if it is a problem affecting only the lower ranks. This does little to change the situation. Top leaders benefit from divisive factional fights and a political school is unlikely to change that. http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/politics/2013/07/10/ancs-political-school-may-finally-have-found-a-home http://news.howzit.msn.com/hopes-are-on-political-schools-to-rescue-anc-from-factional-strife