ANC plans further municipal interventions to woo back voters
Interventions planned for Mangaung, Johannesburg and Tshwane
29 January 2025 - 19:27
by KGOTHATSO MADISA
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Deputy minister of co-operative governance & traditional affairs and ANC NEC member Dickson Masemola. Picture: X/MyANC
The ANC plans to deploy experienced party leaders to assist struggling municipalities, and the country’s metros in particular, as part of a strategy to regain voters before the 2026 local government elections.
The strategy proved effective in KwaZulu-Natal where the ANC installed Cyril Xaba, the former co-chair of parliament’s defence committee, as mayor of eThekwini.
The party is planning similar moves for the Mangaung, Johannesburg and Tshwane municipalities, though it is unclear whether current mayors will be affected.
Deputy co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Dickson Masemola, who is also a member of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), has pledged an overhaul of local government.
“We assure South Africans the local government of tomorrow will not necessarily be the same as what might have happened in the previous few years. We have learnt lessons, we understand and appreciate those negativities and disappointments,” he said.
“As we move to the future we are occasioned for greater performance and effective delivery of services informed and guided by much needed political leadership that will find its resonance in how it translates into the efficacy of social systems of the administration.”
The interventions will be part of the decisions taken at the weekend’s ANC NEC lekgotla and were expected to be presented at the cabinet lekgotla on Wednesday.
“The lekgotla ... was certain that out of the experiences we have learnt recently, for example our intervention in eThekwini where a senior cadre of the movement was deployed,” said Masemola.
“It beckons the ANC to make sure that with greater social conscience and ingenuity, we must consider deployment of senior capable cadres because this level or sphere of government is important, if not central.”
Masemola said the ANC had learnt from the general elections in May last year that service delivery at local government was a significant contributing factor to it losing its outright majority in parliament.
“If society and communities are not happy about performance of our government at municipal level, we stand to receive reduced electoral fortunes ... [but] that lekgotla was able to analyse, assess and take a strong point.”
Since the deployment of Xaba as mayor of eThekwini the city has shown signs of improvement, including visitors flocking to the beaches again.
The ANC believes the successes achieved must be applied to other ailing municipalities, including metros and some districts, said Masemola.
“The ANC believes we have learnt from the eThekwini metro. We are in discussions with comrades and colleagues in Mangaung municipality. We’ve had discussions and [are paying] attention to Nelson Mandela Bay metro and others.
“We have agreed with the president that in early March we will be in Johannesburg to interact with the provincial government, including the City of Johannesburg. Thereafter we will engage the City of Tshwane.
“You can see in eThekwini we only changed one office, of the mayor, with what has been existing there at the political level, including even administratively. But the impact of that individual, working with the rest of the comrades and colleagues they found on site, they have fundamentally changed the complexion and the complexities of that situation in [the] right direction.”
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
ANC plans further municipal interventions to woo back voters
Interventions planned for Mangaung, Johannesburg and Tshwane
The ANC plans to deploy experienced party leaders to assist struggling municipalities, and the country’s metros in particular, as part of a strategy to regain voters before the 2026 local government elections.
The strategy proved effective in KwaZulu-Natal where the ANC installed Cyril Xaba, the former co-chair of parliament’s defence committee, as mayor of eThekwini.
The party is planning similar moves for the Mangaung, Johannesburg and Tshwane municipalities, though it is unclear whether current mayors will be affected.
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Deputy co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Dickson Masemola, who is also a member of the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC), has pledged an overhaul of local government.
“We assure South Africans the local government of tomorrow will not necessarily be the same as what might have happened in the previous few years. We have learnt lessons, we understand and appreciate those negativities and disappointments,” he said.
“As we move to the future we are occasioned for greater performance and effective delivery of services informed and guided by much needed political leadership that will find its resonance in how it translates into the efficacy of social systems of the administration.”
The interventions will be part of the decisions taken at the weekend’s ANC NEC lekgotla and were expected to be presented at the cabinet lekgotla on Wednesday.
“The lekgotla ... was certain that out of the experiences we have learnt recently, for example our intervention in eThekwini where a senior cadre of the movement was deployed,” said Masemola.
“It beckons the ANC to make sure that with greater social conscience and ingenuity, we must consider deployment of senior capable cadres because this level or sphere of government is important, if not central.”
Masemola said the ANC had learnt from the general elections in May last year that service delivery at local government was a significant contributing factor to it losing its outright majority in parliament.
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“If society and communities are not happy about performance of our government at municipal level, we stand to receive reduced electoral fortunes ... [but] that lekgotla was able to analyse, assess and take a strong point.”
Since the deployment of Xaba as mayor of eThekwini the city has shown signs of improvement, including visitors flocking to the beaches again.
The ANC believes the successes achieved must be applied to other ailing municipalities, including metros and some districts, said Masemola.
“The ANC believes we have learnt from the eThekwini metro. We are in discussions with comrades and colleagues in Mangaung municipality. We’ve had discussions and [are paying] attention to Nelson Mandela Bay metro and others.
“We have agreed with the president that in early March we will be in Johannesburg to interact with the provincial government, including the City of Johannesburg. Thereafter we will engage the City of Tshwane.
“You can see in eThekwini we only changed one office, of the mayor, with what has been existing there at the political level, including even administratively. But the impact of that individual, working with the rest of the comrades and colleagues they found on site, they have fundamentally changed the complexion and the complexities of that situation in [the] right direction.”
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