Durban - The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has instructed all its branches to start urgent preparations for the 2021 local government elections.
The party has instructed its branches across its 11 regions in the province to convert their branch executive committees (BECs) and branch task teams (BTTs) to branch election teams (BETs) in order to contest for the local government elections.
The news of the preparations was first seen by Independent Media in a leaked memo which was meant for branches in the eThekwini region.
In the weekend memo, Mluleki Ndobe, the coordinator of the regional task team (RTT) instructed branches to comply with the instruction by Tuesday.
“Revolutionary greetings comrade, Please let all branch secretaries be aware that all structures of the ANC are now being converted to elections structures to we prepare for the 2021 local elections.
“All branch secretaries have been converted to branch elections team coordinators.
“All branches are also requested to convert their various BEC/BTT to BETs. May all BET Coordinators kindly submit the BET structure list latest by Tuesday, 11 August 2020, at 12h00.
“The BET template form has been provided to all branches. Should any branch have any enquiries please contact the ANC Ethekwini regional office or Ethekwini region elections manager Cde (comrade) Mkhuseli Sondzaba,” reads the memo from Ndobe to eThekwini branches.
The spokesperson of the party in the province, Nhlakanipho Ntombela, confirmed the memo.
“All regions have been instructed to start election preparations, 11 across the province. As lockdown regulations are relaxed we plan to host regional conferences before (the) 2021 (local government) elections," he said.
Ntombela explained that they hope that by the time they host the local government elections which is expected around August next year so that regional leaderships can nominate mayoral candidates.
“RECs will nominate candidates. Probably from January to March/April latest, we will exhaust elective processes,” Ntombela said.
Political Bureau