ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says his organisation is not interested in coalition talks as the party is focusing on getting the overwhelming victory come May 29.
Mbalula was responding to DA leader John Steenhuisen’s proposal of entering a coalition with the ANC after the elections.
“I am not working for coalition; John is working for it. I am working for victory, and outright victory, so those who are working for coalition are experts on what would happen.
“Where am I? I am working and we are working for outright majority. Let John think about coalition, I think about victory,” the ANC SG explained.
The opposition party leader had shared his willingness to form a coalition with the ANC after the elections.
However, Mbalula said the ANC was not worried about opposition parties, saying that as the movement, they account to the people on the commitments they have previously made, and report progress on their implementation.
“We have been campaigning in the Free State and at no point do we see any other political party campaigning here. All we see is their posters, but we see none of them on the ground. The only thing we are focused on is victory come the 29th of May.”
He said since he started campaigning in the Free State, he had not seen any opposition party apart from the ANC campaigning on the ground. Mbalula said there were other organisations’ posters but no people on the ground. “I am here on the ground doing door to door here in Meqheleng in Ficksburg. I am talking to people of Meqheleng and we have been touching base with them more than 10 times now. So we are not worried about opposition parties.
“We will see the score boards on May 29, we are not worried, we do what we do, we account to our people And it’s that time of accountability where we ask our people to give us their vote, and that will give us the overwhelming victory for the ANC,” Mbalula added.
The Free State province would be fiercely contested as the party of the former provincial chairperson and secretary-general of the ANC, Ace Magashule’s African Congress for Transformation Movement (ACT) was making massive strides in various areas in the province.
Former SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s African Content Movement (ACM,) was also making inroads in the province, which has recently established base in the Motheo region.
According to ACM national organiser Sello Shabalala, the party was been received well by the people in the area as they no longer have an alternative.
“Community of both Thaba Mchunu and Botshabelo have welcomed ACM into their homes, and they are willing to give us a chance.
“So far, I believe that we are doing very well and I am confident that we will shake your traditional ‘big parties’ in the province and might even go on and win the province,” Shabalala said.
Thabo Malebo, a resident of Thaba-Nchu, said he would give ACM a chance to see what it would bring to the table as he has lost hope in the governing party.
“I am actually going to give Hlaudi a chance,to see if he will make a difference, but I believe he will make changes. His track record at the SABC speaks volumes and anyone who still doubts him is delusional,” Malebo said.
The Star