Cape Town - The Western Cape ANC has its sights firmly set on the crucial upcoming provincial elective conference, that will position the party for next year’s local government elections.
The ANC top brass, which traversed the province in the run-up to its 103rd birthday celebrations two weeks ago, did not mince their words: Cape Town and the Western Cape needed to come back into the ANC fold; the “right people” needed to govern in the only metro and province outside ANC control.
Provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile told the Cape Argus on Tuesday that a key task would be registering voters, to build on what he described as “a renewed interest” in the ANC over the past four years.
“The DA has reached its ceiling. From our side, there’s still (another) 30 percent. It’s a game changer,” he said.
The ANC holds seven of the 30 municipal councils in the province, in a few cases on the back of by-election wins and/or co-operation agreements.
Voter registration levels even in ANC strongholds trailed in the run-up to the May 2014 elections. This contributed to a just over 1 percentage point rise to 34 percent in the party’s showing, despite a vigorous outreach campaign among the Cape minstrels, religious communities and other groups.
In 2009 the ANC achieved 32.86 percent support, after its best showing of just over 45 percent support under then ANC chairman and premier Ebrahim Rasool.
At the time the first opening shots in intra-party tensions were made and then developed into often public acrimonious infighting and a chaos-ridden 2005 ANC Western Cape conference, where Rasool lost his party position, and three years later was replaced as premier.
However, Mjongile was adamant the hard work over the past four years was paying off, with a “re-energised base” and a membership that had almost doubled to around 60 000 in 264 branches.
“Many people who left the ANC because of factionalism are returning,” he said.
Demand for transport to the ANC birthday bash at Cape Town Stadium highlighted this: “We had people from Kensington demanding a bus. Previously a 15-seater taxi would have been enough. We sent a bus and two taxis.”
And filling the stadium had sent an important message: “We shocked the DA establishment to the core. They did not expect we could pull it off.”
But for a provincial party with a history of bruising factional battles, the conference at the end of March will determine whether this past has been laid to rest, or whether there will be a resurgence of infighting.
Mjongile and current ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman have not always seen eye to eye, but the past months’ preparations for the ANC birthday celebrations meant they had to work together to pull off the national event.
The grapevine has it that Mcebisi Skwatsha, former Western Cape secretary and now deputy rural development minister, may enter the fray. He did not respond to an SMS and voicemail requesting comment on Tuesday.
However, one insider said if that should happen, he’d be asked to withdraw.
Since its 2012 Mangaung national conference, the ANC has banned members’ high structures, like the national executive committee of which Skwatsha is a member, from contesting positions in lower structures, such as the provincial leadership.
The possibility of fielding a proxy candidate may yet arise.
Mjongile refused to be drawn on whether he would stand for office – his was the standard ANC response: the branches would decide.
“The question is: have we put the Western Cape on a different path? And we must continue because four years is a very short time.”
Instead it’s ensuring a successful 2016 election was high on the agenda, and the provincial conference will also prioritise agrarian and land reform, housing, an integrated Cape Town and economic inclusivity.
The last time the ANC held Cape Town was before 2006 – with a stint out of power from 2000 to 2002 due to floor-crossing-related shifts of power – under then mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, now deputy international relations minister.
Following the 2006 municipal poll, the DA clinched control after its leader Helen Zille put together a fractious coalition of smaller parties.
The DA took charge of the province in 2009 following a co-operation deal with the then Independent Democrats, which boosted it to just over 48 percent polling support. In 2011 the DA won Cape Town outright and the province last year.
Cape Argus