THE ANC has undertaken to remove its candidates in the November 1 local government elections, who are unsuitable and were incorrectly placed in its lists after the municipal polls.
ANC Gauteng head of elections and the province’s Human Settlements, Urban Planning and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Lebogang Maile yesterday said the party was committed to resolving the issues raised by its branches.
”We have also made a commitment that post the elections we will resolve the issues. Those who are not suitable to be councillor candidates or who were wrongly placed as our candidates, they will definitely be removed.
“The president has spoken on this matter and indicated that there will be an inquiry, which will look at these matters holistically, advise the leadership on how on how to intervene,” Maile said.
Maile was speaking outside St. George’s Hotel and Conference Centre in Centurion, Tshwane, where ANC deputy president David Mabuza, treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte and Gauteng deputy chairperson Panyaza Lesufi met voter district co-ordinators, branch elections co-ordinators, zonal co-ordinators and all councillors.
According to Maile, the meeting was also meant to resolve issues raised by 11 branches affected by the disputes in the capital city.
”We are the only party that had a public participation process, it’s not just an internal ANC process so the introduction of the public participation process has also brought other dynamics and complications. We are a learning organisation, we will learn from this experience. We will definitely do better,” he promised.
Maile said the ANC had for the first time a public participation element in its candidate selection process, which experienced challenges.
”It came with some challenges, as a result there are few individuals who are not happy but we believe it’s important that we don’t just brush them aside. That’s why the national leadership of the ANC is here today, to give them confirmation and affirmation that indeed their issues will be addressed as the president has said,” he explained.
A few weeks ago, President Cyril Ramaphosa said as with all new processes and structures its candidate selection process had teething problems and that the governing party also received troubling reports of alleged misconduct, transgressions of list guidelines and manipulation of lists.
”The ANC will investigate all these reports and allegations. Where necessary, we will institute disciplinary measures,” Ramaphosa told Cosatu’s central committee meeting last month.
Political analysts warned that there would no easy fix for the ANC even after the municipal polls.
Dr Ralph Mathekga said the process of involving the community was a major shift in the ANC’s process.
He said the process has a lot of potential and looks good but that if the ANC does not do well in the elections there was mostly likely going to be a lot of fighting.
”Conversations will continue beyond the elections and it will drag slightly longer than the election process,” said Mathekga.
Professor Bheki Mngomezulu said it was too little, too late for the ANC to resolve some of the issues as the Electoral Commission of SA had stated guidelines and deadlines.
”That ship has already passed. They can only draw lessons from what is happening right now,” Mngomezulu said.
He said the ANC had poorly communicated the outcomes of the candidate selection process.
Mngomezulu warned that if the ANC forces some of its candidates, who were products of manipulated processes to resign after the elections, it might be risky as there was no guarantee that it would retain the seats in by-elections.
Political Bureau