Cape Town - The instruction by the DA’s Federal Executive requesting all chosen party office bearers re-submit their CVs has raised the anger of DA activists across the province.
Several activists who have been working around the clock in the run-up to the local government elections have raised concerns they are being sidelined by their party as coalition talks intensify and demands by coalition partners grow.
Members from the DA’s East and West regions were outraged on Tuesday after being told the party’s Federal Executive (Fedex) resolved that meetings to constitute councils should be postponed until next week.
The instruction, which was circulated to mayoral candidates, said the reason for this was “that in some councils the coalition partners with which we (the DA) have to work require a comprehensive framework agreement covering co-operation in all the councils throughout the country”.
The Fedex required the CVs of the office-bearers to be elected to ensure the incumbents were fit for purpose.
Asked for comment, DA Federal chairman James Selfe conceded most, if not all, parties the DA was in coalition talks with, had insisted on nation-wide agreements, covering the municipalities in which they would be in coalition.
“Therefore, constituting the councils must await the conclusion of the agreement(s).
“It was for that reason that we requested the constitution of the councils to be postponed,” Selfe said.
He added members of the various mayoral committees (maycos) had, in terms of the DA’s nomination regulations, to be approved by the Fedex.
“Many of the Fedex members were not part of the selection process, and thus have no idea who the people are that they are being asked to approve. It was for that reason that the Fedex requested CVs.”
Selfe said although they had met most of the parties they were considering as partners, it was too soon to comment on the outcomes of the talks.
But party insiders were sceptical of the Fedex request for CVs, when the City of Cape Town had been permitted to host its inauguration on Thursday.
The meeting will see the newly constituted council elect the executive mayor, the executive deputy mayor and the Speaker of the council.
Mayor-elect Patricia de Lille said on Tuesday the instruction from the Fedex did not apply to the city.
De Lille appointed her mayco on Monday night.
“First, it is because of the national negotiations and secondly, there was an administrative blunder where not all the CVs were available for every mayco member and that was not the case in the City of Cape Town which was able to produce the CVs.”
Asked why the CVs were required again, De Lille said: “It is just for the record. The motivations and everything else is there.”
De Lille said the executive would reconvene on Thursday or on Friday, but that the councils would all be meeting next week.
Concerns raised by members however suggested there was more at play.
“Are they now saying that hard-working activists will never get a mayco post because the party is working on CVs and looking for doctorates?”
An activist from the East region suggested the exercise was a farce, and was not convinced the Fedex would not bother to read the CVs. “One can only assume they are struggling to finalise coalitions because the partners are pushing for as much as they can,” another member said.
Others wanted to know that if the selection process found them capable of being elected councillors, why did it now need CVs when they wanted to fill mayco positions.
“Something is not adding up. The joke is that when we applied for these candidate posts, we submitted our CVs.
“Clearly this is a power-play where we will come second,” an insider said.
Additional reporting by Lindsay Dentlinger
Cape Argus