ANGRY residents of the Bambamecisi informal settlement near NkowaNkowa township outside Tzaneen have threatened to boycott the coming municipal elections if the ANC fails to reinstate current councillor Elsie Nkuna.

The residents claimed that Nkuna had been responsive to their needs when they asked for service delivery. This, they said, happened during her term as councillor for ward 21, which included their area.

They accused the ANC leadership in the Mopani region of a "stubborn tendency to impose ward councillors" and ignore the people's choice.

The reaction comes after the residents realised that Nkuna was to be replaced with a new candidate, Phyllis Mashele, after the elections.

Mashele also works as a principal at one of the local schools and the residents feel she would have no time to attend to community challenges since she would be spending much of her time at school.

According to the residents' spokesperson, Jabu Ndala, there were many things Nkuna had done for the area and they wanted her to stay on as a ward councillor to complete some of the projects she had started.

Ndala said they had been challenging the decision to replace Nkuna as councillor for the area with the ANC regional leadership but felt they were not being taken seriously.

"We have written a letter to ANC provincial secretary Joe Maswanganyi requesting an intervention but nothing has been done so far," Ndala said.

He said they were planning to proceed to the party's headquarters at Luthuli House to seek assistance.

Mopani ANC regional secretaryBricks Manzini said yesterday that delivery would not be brought to communities by an individual "but by the party-led government".

He said they would forge ahead with their plan to deploy a new candidate who would replace Nkuna as councillor in the coming local government elections. Meanwhile, the residents threatened that if all else failed they would nominate an independent candidate to represent them in the coming elections.