/ 20 May 2010

ANC calls on party branches to assist with service delivery

African National Congress (ANC) branches must be more involved in helping to detect service-delivery problems, the party said on Thursday.

“In many instances, service-delivery protests take place in communities where there are branches there, and it happens right under their noses,” said ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu, ahead of the launch of a new campaign aimed at getting branches more involved.

The Imvuselelo Campaign will be launched by President Jacob Zuma in Mpumalanga this Sunday.

The party expects 20 000 people to be there.

Mthembu said he wanted branches to become part and parcel of the campaign to alert the ANC leadership of imminent protests so that the party could deal with it properly.

“By making them part of community struggles, this company will add positively.”

Speaking about the disbandment of branches in the North West, he said they were disbanded to rebuild a vibrant new ANC in that province.

He said 121 branches had already been relaunched.

“The branches were disbanded for good reasons … we are building non-factional branches … and at the helm of everything we want to build unity and cohesion,” he said.

Mthembu said allegations of disunity and factionalism were not part of the character of the ANC.

“We will be concerned with tendencies of factionalism if they arise anywhere … if there is any indication of factionalism in any ANC branches we will be worried,” said Mthembu.

The campaign will include a massive recruitment drive to enlist one million members by its centenary in 2012. — Sapa