Thabani Nyawose
Image: Doctor Ngcobo
The ANC is gearing up for a fight to retain control of the eThekwini municipality, boldly declaring it will never allow the municipality to fall into the hands of the Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP).
The ANC has declared a bold ambition that it will regain full control of the municipality in the upcoming local government elections. This comes as it made a clarion call to its members, the business community, and civil society to work with it in improving the lives of ordinary people. The party said it intends to defend all of its 74 wards and increase the number of PR councillors so it can govern the municipality alone. The party currently governs the municipality in a coalition with the EFF and the IFP.
The bold declaration by the party comes as political experts have warned that the MKP is likely to take control of the municipality. Political expert Prince Mashele predicted on social media recently that the MKP will govern eThekwini with an outright majority after the November 4 local government elections.
But speaking at an ANC gala on Saturday, the ANC speaker at the eThekwini municipality, Thabani Nyawose, said they intend to regain full control of the municipality. The ANC hosted the gala at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre.
“In the municipality currently, the ANC is in control of 74 wards where we have councillors and 21 PR councillors. In the RTT, we have agreed that we will work very hard to retain or defend all 74 wards under the control of the ANC. We also want to increase our PR councillors from 21 to a number that will make the ANC govern the municipality alone. We do not want to be in a coalition government; we have had a very bad experience when it comes to that.
“We are ready to hit the ground and mobilise all the people of Durban to vote for the ANC. We have heard people saying that after November 4, the eThekwini municipality will have a mayor coming from another party, not the ANC. We want to state clearly that this municipality will remain in the hands of the ANC.
“We had the chaplain who officiated the gala praying that those who want to gain control of eThekwini must not get it; we pray and believe it will be so,” said Nyawose.
Convenor of the ANC in KZN, Mike Mabuyakhulu, warned that those who write off the ANC do so at their peril. “The ANC is visible, present, and leads. Those who look down on us are still going to see us. We have seen headlines, political autopsies conducted on a movement they said is finished and consigned to history, but today all of you bear witness that the people’s movement still lives.
“It has survived challenges that have destroyed other organisations. The root of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal runs deep.”
Mabuyakhulu called on ANC members to be at the forefront of the election campaign, stating that the task is to serve the public and lead effective election campaigns.
“Our first task in this area is to go and register our people in their numbers so that on November 4, we can win the elections and win decisively.”
He called on party members to work hard to regain public trust, pointing out that this trust is the party’s greatest asset. “It cannot be lost in a single term of poor governance or moral decay.” He said under ANC governance, great strides have been made in the economy and services delivered to the community.
“The best is still yet to come,” he said, adding that the ANC intends to work with businesses and community organisations to address social challenges.
“The ANC is preparing for local government elections with the seriousness that those elections demand; we are not preparing merely to contest. We are preparing to consolidate where we govern, to be the authority where we co-govern, and to take power where we are in opposition.”
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