Rustenburg - The Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) has not been swallowed by the African National Congress (ANC), but was negotiating with the ruling party, the Forum said on Wednesday.
“We have not gone to bed with the ANC, talks are continuing at national level,” said Bosa Ledwaba, F4SD councillor in Rustenburg and member of the National Forum Executive Committee.
She said talks between the F4SD and the ANC started last month and were expected to be completed by December.
“The ANC offered us the position of the deputy mayor in Rustenburg in exchange of working with them. We made it clear to the ANC that we do not want positions. We are going to work with them on issues relating to [basic] service delivery,” she said.
“People did not vote for us to go into bed with the ANC, but to deliver services to them. Our co-operation with the ANC will be on issue to issue. If it is service delivery to our people, we will vote with them. If it is against the delivery of services we are not going to vote with them.”
She said after the talks have been completed, the F4SD would not sign any agreement with the ANC.
“This is the same co-operation we have with other parties, where we agree with them we will vote together,” she said.
The ANC in Rustenburg won 43 council seats after the municipal elections in August, and it needed to work with opposition parties to take control of the municipality.
The ANC has a coalition agreement with the Botho Community Movement and the African Independent Congress (AIC), taking its council seats to 45, while the Democratic Alliance-led opposition alliance have a total of 44 council seats.
In a statement on Tuesday, national spokesperson Elias Mogoru said the Forum was aware of a hoax document that was circulating, suggesting that the F4SD was in bed with the ANC.
“This is not true and is misleading. F4SD would like to clarify that the story is fabricated and that no Forum 4 Service Delivery is aligning itself with any political party, not DA, not EFF not even the ANC.”
African News Agency