ANC ‘problem areas’ being looked at

The ANC's head of its elections campaign, Malusi Gigaba. Picture: Henk Kruger/Cape Argus

The ANC's head of its elections campaign, Malusi Gigaba. Picture: Henk Kruger/Cape Argus

Published Feb 1, 2016

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Johannesburg - The ANC’s head of its elections campaign, Malusi Gigaba, has admitted that the party is facing problems in its bid to retain its metros in the upcoming municipal elections.

In an interview with The Star at the weekend, Gigaba, who is also the Home Affairs Minister, said the “problem areas” were being looked at. He said officials would not focus on only one area.

Gigaba was referring the troubled Nelson Mandela Bay, where the regional structure has been disbanded and replaced with a task team aimed at rebuilding party structures following sustained infighting in the region.

ANC support in the metro, comprising Port Elizabeth, Despatch and Uitenhage, dipped to below 50 percent during the 2014 general elections. The ruling party managed to retain control by 51.9 percent of the votes during the 2011 municipal elections.

Gigaba sought to downplay these statistics.

“The support of the ANC is not dwindling. That’s the same message we were told before the 2014 general elections - that we were not going to make 50 percent.

“And as it became obvious that that was all nonsense, people kept changing the target figures until we got the 62 percent that we got in the elections.”

The ANC, he said, would focus on retaining the Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane, Joburg, and eThekwini. “Just the ANC vote on its own is going to carry us to victory,” he said.

Gigaba was confident that ANC members would forget their “petty parochial issues” and focus on ensuring the ANC emerged with an overwhelming majority.

The election manifesto was being drafted.

“We have done our research, we know which issues are emanating from the people. We will base our manifesto on that. We will also base it on the progress made in delivering the 2011 manifesto in the different municipalities,” said Gigaba, adding the recent national general council (NGC) did not take a decision on announcing mayoral candidates before the elections to give them enough time to interact with their constituencies.

“We still need to consider it. We will announce through the SG (secretary-general Gwede Mantashe) whether we should announce mayoral candidates in the big metros and big district municipalities,” said Gigaba.

@iam_toh

The Star

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