Mike Soko Denies Claims He Attempted to Register SANCO to Contest Elections Outside ANC Alliance

SIHLE MAVUSO|June 25, 2025

***REFUTED: Mike Soko says he never wanted SANCO to contest the elections. Photo: Facebook***

The General Secretary of the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) has reacted angrily to claims that he is behind the now-blocked attempt to register the civic organisation to contest the upcoming 2026 local government elections outside the ANC-led alliance.

Mike Soko says the allegations are not true, as he is the one who wrote to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to object when they learnt that there is an attempt to register the civic movement as a political party.

Soko’s response comes after Lemias Mashile claimed that he was behind the move.

Mashile who claims that he is the rightful General Secretary of the civic movement made these allegations in a comment to the African Times.

That was after the publication learnt that both factions of SANCO wrote to the IEC about the matter.

“Mike Soko has been part of the provincial secretaries that wanted Sanco to be a political party in 2017 so that they can contest 2019 national elections. They tried to call for early conferences twice in 2017 but failed.

“They now have an internal squabble and a group from them who believed in the same mentality went to register SANCO with IEC as a political party. That group is implementing an idea that they held for a long time. It is his plan to have his group apply for registration and then he submit a fake objection to mislead people as if it is not his idea,” Mashile alleged.

Firing back, Soko said Mashile is not telling the truth, adding that he is a desperate fellow who is no longer a leader of SANCO but of a bogus group.

“In 2017, I was already serving in the ANC PEC in Mpumalanga. I therefore had no business to register SANCO as a political party. I always defended the character of SANCO as a civic movement against opportunists like them who have ambitions to go to parliament.

There were attempts by them in the previous national and provincial elections to register SANCO as a political party. They even told the ANC leadership of their intentions, and we objected successfully and thwarted their attempts,” Soko said in response.