ANC promises to deal with councillor, mayoral disputes

Cape Town – The ANC has promised to deal with the issue of disputes over candidates who were elected to serve as councillors after the November polls.

This comes as the Ray Nkonyeni municipality in KwaZulu-Natal was locked in a bitter dispute, with the ANC failing to elect a mayor because of internal fighting.

For three months since the local government elections the ANC in the municipality had not been able to put a mayor in place.

On Friday the municipality finally elected Isaac Skhumbuzo Mqadi as the mayor.

In a statement on Saturday the ANC said the National Executive Committee has called for action in areas where there had been disputes.

In the run up to the elections, a number of communities told President Cyril Ramaphosa that their councillor candidates were being imposed on them.

They complained that some of the candidates they wanted and had voted for in community meetings had been sidelined and factions in the ANC put their own preferred candidates forward to serve as councillors.

Ramaphosa had promised that the ANC would deal with the disputes after the elections.

Some of the ANC structures marched from Limpopo and other provinces to Luthuli House to complain about councillor candidates, saying factions had sidelined candidates voted by communities and that lists were manipulated.

The ANC said on Saturday they wanted to deal with the disputes.

It said it would “deal with outstanding issues of candidate and mayoral disputes, discipline and integrity and strengthen ANC disciplinary structures.”

The ANC lost some of the key metros in Gauteng after the polls. It also lost some municipalities in other parts of the country and was forced into coalitions in many areas.

After losing political ground in the 2016 elections, the ANC lost more ground in the 2021 local government elections.

siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za

Political Bureau