President Thabo Mbeki launched the African National Congress’s election campaign on Sunday with promises of cleaner, more responsive and effective local government.
But the audience of about 25 000 people at Cape Town’s Athlone Stadium seemed more turned on by a performance by kwaito star Ntando than by any of the speeches they heard.
Somewhere in the mass of people, out of the eye of the media and definitely not on the podium with Mbeki, was self-suspended ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha said he had seen Zuma at the rally, and that Zuma had been sitting ”with other ANC leaders”.
The ANC confirmed earlier this week that Zuma, who is facing corruption and rape charges, would be campaigning as an ”ordinary member” for the party ahead of the March 1 poll.
Mbeki told the crowd, many of them bused to the rally, that the ANC’s commitment to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local government will ”also start” with those it nominates as mayors and councillors.
They have to understand the heavy responsibility on their shoulders, and respect the ”revolutionary morality” of the party.
”They must understand we elected them as our candidate mayors and councillors to serve the people of South Africa and not to pursue their own private interests,” Mbeki said. ”Their work will be reviewed regularly to ensure they meet their obligations.”
In this way, the ANC will ensure that councillors remain accountable.
He also said ANC branches should act as ”a front-line fighter” against corruption, to ensure no one uses his or her position in the government ”to steal from the people or line their pockets, for instance by giving contracts to their friends in return for kickbacks”.
He said the ANC is aware that communities want jobs, proper sewage and waste removal, to be safe from crime and to have proper roads and decent housing.
”We must eradicate shack settlements,” he said.
Manifesto
He repeated the promises in the ANC’s election manifesto, which was also launched at the rally.
The manifesto says that over the next five years the government will invest more than R400-billion in infrastructure to create jobs and fight poverty, building roads, rail networks, dams, electricity-generating plants and communications infrastructure.
This infrastructure plan, it says, will ensure that by 2010, when South Africa hosts the Soccer World Cup, all households will have access to clean running water and decent sanitation.
”As we celebrate the centenary of the ANC in 2012, every house will have access to electricity,” it says. ”By supervising the work of all our public representatives in government, we will ensure that these tasks are met.
”By improving the capacity of all government structures to serve the people, we will make government work better for you.”
The manifesto says ward committees will be made more effective to strengthen popular participation in local government, and a training programme will be put in place to make sure councillors are able to meet their mandate.
This is echoed the ANC’s annual January 8 statement, setting out the party’s priorities for the year, which was also released on Sunday.
The statement says demonstrations in some communities over the past year emphasised the importance of continuous contact between municipalities and ”the people”.
This will avoid ”opportunistic elements” taking advantage of genuine grievances ”to pursue their own goals at variance with those of the national democratic movement”.
In a message of support delivered before Mbeki’s speech, South African National Civics Organisation president Mlungisi Hlongwane said his organisation is firmly behind the ANC and will ensure it wins overwhelmingly in the coming polls.
”The Western Cape and Cape Town, in particular, belong to the ANC,” he said.
The deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, Jeremy Cronin, also called for an ”overwhelming” ANC victory, and said for this, the alliance partners will have to work very hard in Cape Town, the Western Cape and the rest of South Africa.
ANC-controlled Cape Town, with its large coloured vote, is expected to be the most hotly contested of all the metro elections. — Sapa