Cape Town - The ANC has commended the steadfast dedication and commitment of party and community members to participate in the councillor nomination process under unusual and difficult conditions.
An extended national executive committee (NEC) met on Saturday and Sunday to approve the lists of ANC candidates for the local government elections scheduled to take place on October 27, 2021.
Representatives of the extended NEC include ANC provinces, leagues, and alliance partners – the SACP and Cosatu. The IEC deadline for the registration of candidates is today.
ANC Electoral Committee chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe presided over the processes of candidate selection and presented this to a special sitting of the NEC on Sunday in which the national executive ratified all candidate lists and also adopted the report of the electoral committee.
A statement reads that the ruling party placed community involvement at the centre of the selection of ward candidates to ensure that ANC candidates are people who the community feels confident will represent them in local government.
“The ANC candidate selection process resulted in the nomination of close to 10 000 ward and proportional representative candidates. This was followed by rigorous screening and interviews by the regional interview and vetting panels and the provincial list committees.
“Despite the stringent requirement of gender equity, the persistence of patriarchal attitudes meant that the majority of ward councillors nominated are male. To adjust for this, more ANC women candidates form part of our proportional representation list,” said the statement.
The task now, the ANC said, is to initiate a dynamic election campaign with an aim to emerge with municipal councils that act in the interest of communities in pursuit of economic growth and social development as well as effective and ethical governance.
Political Bureau