The outcome of the ANCs long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
PORT ELIZABETH, June 3 (ANA) – The African National Congress’s national spokesman said on Friday the “uncontrollable desire for power” amongst the ruling party’s members is going “to kill the ANC”.
ANC National spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa was addressing the media at the party’s regional headquarters in Port Elizabeth ahead of the start of the organisation’s campaign here for the local government elections.
Deputy Secretary General, Jessie Duarte is expected in Nelson Mandela Bay on Saturday. Duarte will conduct a public meeting at the Helenvale Resource Centre and in addition address issues afflicting disaffected areas, namely wards 22, 54 and 32 where residents are unhappy about the party’s choices for councillor candidates.
In recent weeks residents from Kwazakhele’s ward 22 protested and burnt tyres because they believe candidates are being imposed on them. This week party members again protested outside the ANC’s regional officers at Florence Matomela House.
They complained that the candidate lists had been manipulated to include people who had not been endorsed by residents.
Kodwa said that all the PR and ward candidates were registered on Thursday and that the party was now dealing with issues of unhappiness which related to the adherence of guidelines.
“We introduced what we call 60-percent retention and part of the guidelines was that we are not going to interfere with the first 10 percent of the outcomes of any list. Part of what you see outside Florence Matomela, you saw yesterday [Thursday] at Luthuli house, was the fact that the first 10 percent does not meet all the variables such as representation, gender and so on.
“We must implement what is required and part of the confusion is implementation and adherence to the guidelines. We had a significant reduction in terms of the unhappiness about the process. In 2011 we had a number of interruptions through out the country, unhappiness about the removal about candidates. The reason for that reduction is that we took a position that we not going to interfere with the outcome of a ward,” said Kodwa.
He said the cause for the recent disgruntlement related to people who assumed they would be deployed because of their position on the list.
“There is a growing phenomena, we must deal with it post election, what we described as an uncontrollable desire for power, it’s me only who can be an ANC0 councillor no one else. One of the phenomena is people are able to buzz people to come and toyi-toyi… I think the phenomena must [be dealt] with in the ANC because it may kill the integrity and democratic principles of the ANC.
“Time will come when people no longer accept your leadership and you must accept that you will lead for as long people want you to lead, there is going to be a time when you must be a follower. There is a growing phenomena within the organisation where people want to lead forever…you are deployed by the ANC today and you can be removed tomorrow,” he said.
Kodwa however added that the party would have to, at an appropriate time, review the process of selecting councillor candidates if the current situation was hurting the image and integrity of the organisation. He was adamant that the party did not impose candidates.
Turning towards the opposition Kodwa said that the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Nelson Mandela Athol Trollip was a “gift to the ANC” because he was the “weakest” contender.
He said that even within the DA Trollip was “hated” by some of the party’s most traditional voters.
“He is a walk over for us, already Mayor Danny Jordaan has dealt a blow to him [Trollip]. We presented with our intervention the most competent administrator, a shrewd manager who has turned around the city in terms of financial systems and everything else.”
Kodwa said that Trollip was running a “political ponzi scheme” and the DA was “shaken” because a number of its members where unhappy.
“You don’t have to characterise Athol, already there are people that know the man he has no track record. He has a track record of being a farmer nothing else.”
ANC Regional Task Team, Co-ordinator, Beza Ntshona said that Nelson Mandela Bay was not for sale and the RTT were dealing with issues affecting the region.
“We addressed those member today [Friday] at City Hall. We have agreed with them from tomorrow [Saturday] up until Tuesday we will go into their areas to address their concerns. Those members have reassured us that they would remain ANC members and they would vote for the ANC. Some of the issues that they are raising are just management issues that needs the attention from the organisation.. There is no crisis in Nelson Mandela to say many people wont vote for the ANC, or the branches of the ANC are turning against the ANC,” said Ntshona.
-African News Agency (ANA)
Disclaimer: This story is pulled directly from the African News Agency wire, and has not been edited by Mail & Guardian staff. The M&G does not accept responsibility for errors in any statement, quote or extract that may be contained therein.