THE Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) will participate in the ANC municipal elections campaign to ensure victory to the ruling party, the union said.
In a statement following its central executive committee (CEC) meeting last week, the police union said internal and external problems of the ANC have a potential to weaken the party's showing at the November 1 election.
"The CEC understands clearly our role in ensuring victory of the African National Congress so there is accelerated service delivery to our people.
"As a Cosatu affiliated trade union, we are going to participate robustly in the elections campaign as the victory of the ANC is the victory of the nation as a whole and workers in particular," the CEC statement read in part.
The union said it believes the ANC remains the legitimate leader of society and it was the responsibility of all to build the ANC from within rather than fight it from outside.
"We will work hard to remove from among us those that give a bad name to our members by engaging in corrupt activities. We must root out corruption, improve service delivery and build a better society. We reiterate our resolve to be part of a broader movement to pull all like-minded forces together to pull society out of the crises and build an activist-based society that has the capacity to hold the leadership accountable."
The ANC launched its local election manifesto on Monday.
ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday said candidates went through a rigorous and robust democratic process to select the most capable and committed representatives.
"In choosing candidates for the next term of local government, the ANC was determined that we should deepen community participation in the process and assign oversight of the selection process to an electoral committee led by the elders of our movement.
"We want candidates who enjoy the confidence of the people they are expected to serve, who are rooted in communities and who have a strong record of service. We want our candidates to reflect the great diversity of the South African people, reinforcing the reality that the African National Congress – more than any other political formation in our country – represents the interests and the aspirations of the South African nation," Ramaphosa said.
He said 25% of ANC candidates were young people, and 46% of all candidates were women.
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