Branches of the ANC in the Waterberg region have demanded that posts at the Bela-Bela local municipality be frozen until R34-million worth of electricity debt owed to power utility Eskom is paid up.

A group of ANC members from various branches gathered outside the party's provincial headquarters in Polokwane to hand over a memorandum of demands while calling for the executive committee to deal with issues destabilising the party in the Waterberg region.

The crowd who were wearing ANC T-shirts and singing arrived shortly before the provincial party leadership convened a briefing on the upcoming Economic Transformation Summit set to take place in Phalaborwa this month.

Chairman of the OR Tambo branch in Lephalale, Alpheus Thulare, read out the contents of the memorandum to ANC provincial leader Stan Mathabatha in the presence of other executives, including deputy secretary Makoma Makhurupetje.

Thulare informed them that the branches would make sure that all activity at the ANC's Waterberg regional offices are closed for seven working days while they await a response from the provincial leadership.

They also want investigations into alleged misconduct by some senior party leaders as well as the release of audit reports on the financial collapse of the Thabazimbi and the Modimolle local municipalities.

In August the party experienced a major loss in the region when pivotal seats in the newly merged Mookgophong-Modimolle municipality went to the DA after the local elections.

The memorandum further stated that branch leaders in the region had lost confidence in the former Modimolle mayor Meisie Lekalakala, saying the ANC lost the Modimolle municipality under her watch.

Thulare said they were concerned with the leaking of information including suspension letters from within the organisation, adding that this issue must be investigated.

Mathabatha received the memorandum and promised the group that the provincial leadership would respond soon after convening a meeting.