ANC manifesto launch draws die-hard members
THE ANC may not have drawn the expected numbers to its manifesto launch, but there are many party members who still remain committed to the organisation.
The likes of Xolani Mangali of Ward 21 in Adelaide, in Nxuba sub-region, are still convinced that the organisation is the only solution to the social ills facing the country.
Mangali was among the first group of ANC supporters to arrive at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in the early hours of Saturday morning.
He said he had looked forward to attending the launch.
“I felt very excited to realise that we were the first ANC supporters to arrive here [at the stadium]. That was about 3.40am,” he said.
“Except for the people who were busy with preparations for the rally, we were the first organised ANC branches to set foot here.”
Mangali, an ANC branch executive committee member, was tasked with dealing with the logistics of the trip to Port Elizabeth.
Preparations for the manifesto launch had included intense canvassing of supporters to make up the set target of having 100 000 people at the stadium.
In the end, there were not enough people to fill the 46 000-seater stadium – with organisers blaming the late payment of transport service providers for the poor attendance.
Mangali and his executive had managed to recruit enough people to fill 18 taxis.
“The response was overwhelming, considering that our area has less than 20 000 residents. It’s a very small farm town,” he said.
Mangali said there were still many challenges in the country that needed to be addressed, including parts of Nxuba which still used bucket toilets.
“It’s very disappointing to realise that we are one of the few pockets of places in the country who are still using bucket toilets. The problem is that some of our councillors are not accountable to their constituencies,” he said. But like most ANC supporters, while he is critical of the current leadership, he remains hopeful that things will turn for the better in the future.
“When I embarked on the recruitment drive for this rally, I made it clear that these things [bucket toilets] have to be a priority this time. We can only hope and pray that we will make this next lot of councillors account, unlike before,” he said.
About 40 families from the region have been living in corrugated-iron houses since the mid-1970s. The Daily Dispatch reported a few weeks ago that the provincial government planned to replace those houses with proper brick-and-mortar structures in the new financial year.
“We know we are one of the few municipalities in which there is little coming from government but, be that as it may, the ANC remains our only hope,” Mangali said.
President Jacob Zuma announced at the launch that the next crop of councillors would sign service-level agreements to make them more accountable.