Durban - THE founder of the Abantu Batho Congress (ABC), Philani “PG” Mavundla, has launched his new party’s election manifesto, making a raft of promises to voters which includes banning the hiring of bodyguards for councillors and municipal bosses.
Mavundla is a former member of the ANC who in 2011 was made the mayor of Umvoti (Greytown in KwaZulu-Natal Midlands) on the party’s ticket.
He had previously shot to fame by openly claiming that he financially propped up former president Jacob Zuma in the early days of his (Zuma’s) corruption trial and later in 2014 he offered to settle Zuma’s R7 million Nkandla upgrades bill.
In January last year, the property tycoon, who owns among many properties a mall in Greytown, formed his own party and later told IOL that he aimed to unseat the ANC by first taking over Durban, the provincial economic hub and later snatch the province.
Launching his party manifesto in Durban on Wednesday, Mavundla had only harsh words for the governing party, claiming that their factions were fighting over state resources and had neglected the people.
Mavundla then told voters that the time for change had come and that change would only come if voters kicked the ANC out of power.
“The time for self-love and renewed commitment to rebuild unified community action has come. We have been divided and fragmented for far too long. Feeding ANC councillors, MMCs and mayors with our hard-earned monies, while they steal, destroy, loot, slaughter each other and plunder – stop.
"To the extent that they kill each other while competing to steal our hard-earned money and running down our country’s infrastructure, killing off and chasing away investors with greed-infested factional fights over which ANC faction can steal the most from us, the disgrace must end. We want our country back,” Mavundla told his party supporters.
Mavundla said his party, even if it didn’t gain an outright majority, would support and protect local businesses to thrive alongside the people.
“Legitimate businesses must be protected because they provide desperately needed jobs and pay taxes and make our lives better by putting more money into circulation in our communities, no matter the race or gender of the owners of those legit businesses. People must be put first,” he said.
Mavundla also promised that his party would do away with outsourcing municipal jobs and was against labour broking.
“The ABC will ensure an end to all outsourcing with specific reference to labour broking. All outsourced labour functions of the municipalities will be audited and weighed on the merits of the need for that particular function to be outsourced based on its scale of scarcity or rarity.
“Applicable labour laws will be strictly enforced to ensure full protection of workers’ rights and the municipal ratepayers’ consumer rights to efficient, quality and very professional services.”
Lastly, in his raft of promises to voters, Mavundla said providing security for councillors and municipal officials was a financial drain and his party would end it.
“There should be no bodyguards or protection services in any municipality where the ABC is represented through the people’s vote. No one in the senior nor executive management of the municipality where ABC is represented will be considered for security services, except for the instances where executives and senior managers are whistle-blowers.”