Pretoria - The ANC’s Norman Mashabane Region in Mopani, Limpopo, says one of its focus areas is to root out ill-discipline ahead of the November 1 local government elections.
The region, the biggest in the province with 129 branches, was the first to go to elective conference in June.
At the gathering, provincial chairperson of the SA Local Government Association and Mopani District mayor Pule Shayi was to head the region, elected unopposed.
Goodman Mitileni was elected as secretary at the eighth regional conference.
Speaking to the Pretoria News yesterday, Mitileni admitted that factions within the organisation and ill-discipline were weakening the party.
“We are planning on embarking on an induction programme that will be accompanied by the ANC’s learning programme that will include political education. We are determined to root out ill-discipline in the party and we need to communicate this to all our sub-regions.
“We need to unite all our people. We have had incidents of people pronouncing mayoral candidates before we even developed a list.
“We have had buses and taxis mobilised – led by senior officials of the movement, going to the provincial headquarters at Frans Mohlala in Polokwane to picket against candidate lists. That is very alien for the party,” Mitileni said.
Deployment of candidates based on popularity and not merit would have to come to an end ahead of the elections next month, he said.
Among some of the challenges the region faced was the completion of the candidate list.
“Like any other region, completing the candidate list was one of our challenges but we were fortunate to send our list to national for registration although some people were not happy with the list.
“The first thing we are going to do as we prepare for the elections is to increase the number of registered voters and target areas like Phalaborwa and Tzaneen that have more of a white population.
“We also need to focus on reclaiming the Maruleng local municipality where the difference in new numbers are just two councillors.”
Mitileni said there were 46 disputes across the region but they were able to consolidate and solve them through the national elections committee.
The ill-discipline Mitileni was referring to was rife after the region held its conference.
In July the region had to distance itself from pronouncements and the circulation of a list of individuals who had an interest to be ANC mayoral candidates for the elections.
Names of ANC members tipped to be ANC mayoral candidates for municipalities across Mopani region, were circulated on social media by some ANC members to drum up support for their favourites.
The region called for those who were involved in peddling and misleading posters to desist from being ill-disciplined or risk facing disciplinary action.
Pretoria News