Johannesburg - The future of ANC mayors in metros that will be key battlegrounds in the 2016 local government elections hangs in the balance as the ANC hits panic mode over the looming polls.
Local government was expected to top the agenda on the last day of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Sunday where a national working committee (NWC) report detailing its assessment of ANC regions is to be tabled. This follows visits to 51 of the party’s 53 regions across the country.
It will include a report looking specifically at “hotspots”, which are totally dysfunctional municipalities where the NWC is expected to return. The ANC has already fired seven mayors in Limpopo alone in the past three months, but it is unclear if these dismissals were related to the NWC visits.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe confirmed this week that the NWC had visited regions, but downplayed suggestions that the party was uneasy, especially in the metros. But extraordinary steps taken by the party regarding local government this week indicated a sense of urgency about cleaning up the mess in municipalities ahead of the 2016 local government elections.
On Thursday President Jacob Zuma convened a local government summit attended by mayors, premiers, chief whips in municipal councils and traditional leaders, where political instability in the regions was red-flagged as a threat that could collapse municipalities.
Mayors were also summoned to a meeting with ANC officials, including Mantashe, after the summit.
A detailed report of the summit and the meeting with the mayors was due to have been tabled at the NEC meeting yesterday, but the more crucial NWC report after its visits to regions is expected today.
Panic over the real prospects of losing key metros, particularly Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Joburg in Gauteng and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, has seen Luthuli House considering taking over the deployment of only senior ANC officials to the metros. The party performed badly in Tshwane, Joburg and Ekurhuleni, where they won by 50.9 percent, 53.63 percent and 56.41 percent respectively.
Several regional leaders who were present at some meetings with NWC deployees said there was even a proposal to review the 2007 Polokwane conference resolution that the regional and provincial executive committees would decide on the deployment of mayors.
The NEC’s legislature and governance subcommittee chairwoman, Nomaindia Mfeketo, said there were discussions about deploying senior ANC leaders to the metros, but not so much about reviewing the Polokwane resolution.
One ANC regional leader said the proposal would strip the regional structures of powers to determine deployment at local level, and give too much power to Luthuli House.
“I don’t see how any of the provinces will agree to so much centralisation of power to Luthuli House. Why would we want to return to something that we had a problem with and resolved to change it at Polokwane?”
Mantashe this week disputed suggestions that the ANC faced real prospects of losing the metros that didn’t perform well in the provincial elections, saying it was hardly an indication of how they were likely to perform in the local government election.
Asked about suggestions that Luthuli House might centralise the deployments of mayors, ANC Gauteng provincial chairman Paul Mashatile said the current policy was that mayors were selected “from the bottom up”.
“That is the current policy. Any changes would have to be done by the national conference, which comes after 2016,” he said.
The ANC’s national general council next year is expected to set the tone for the direction the party is likely to take ahead of the local government elections and the national policy conference that will precede its 2017 national conference.
Sunday Independent