The ANC will select mayoral candidates in strategic municipalities ahead of time as part of its new election machinery to fight back and win power in the biggest metros.
The party’s mid term review conference in Midrand has agreed to “select mayoral candidates” ahead of local government elections so that they become the faces of its campaign.
Addressing the media on Sunday morning, ANC national executive member Nomvula Mokonyane said: “linked to that is again a national intervention on the selection particular on the strategic municipalities, just as we have done now with Nelson Mandela Bay.”
Mokonyane said the party would not be going to communities to ask them what “we must do for them” but rather they report on what has been done, share experiences and respond to their concerns.
“Voter contact that actually is based on sharing information is going to be the main issue and before the end of this year we will be training all our national leaders in the provinces on a package on the state of local government,” she said.
The party its own state of the organisational report it conceded that if elections were to be held today it would lose power to opposition in the four metros it governs.
The metros are Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni where the party has been experiencing decline in support in recent years.
Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said if the ANC declined below 60% in next year, this would represent a “psychological and political turning point” that would be interpreted as the demise of the party.
He urged for tight and centralised coordination in the deployment of leadership, greater effort to bed placed on four metros the party governs, particularly Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay.
Mantashe also said synergy between organisational and government deployees and ministries should contribute to a common message.
Saturday Star