Gwede to lead talks with AIC

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe will lead a high-level delegation of party leaders to a meeting with the African Independent Congress (AIC) today.

The meeting at the Alfred Nzo district municipality council chambers in Emaxesibeni, formerly Mount Ayliff, will be used to iron out the demands that the AIC put to the ANC when it formed a coalition in Ekurhuleni Metro.

Today’s meeting comes after the AIC gave the ANC an ultimatum to indicate by December 31 when the process of reincorporating Matatiele Municipality from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal would start.

The ruling party was given the ultimatum when it went to the AIC asking for its support to keep power in the Ekurhuleni Metro after the August municipal elections.

The opposition party also helped the ANC in Buffalo City Metro this month pass a sports sponsorship item after opposition parties walked out in an attempt to collapse the council meeting.

The AIC has called for the reincorporation of Matatiele into KwaZulu-Natal as its main demand to the ANC since the 2014 general and provincial elections.

ANC national spokesman Zizi Kodwa yesterday told the Daily Dispatch that during coalition talks, the AIC had specifically demanded that Matatiele be demarcated back into KwaZulu-Natal.

ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Eastern Cape cooperative governance MEC Fikile Xasa and Kodwa will join Mantashe.

AIC president Mandla Galo said that secretary-general Mahlubandile Jafta will lead their 15-member team of national executive committee members.

He said when the parties agreed to form a coalition government in Ekurhuleni, the AIC had put four demands to the ANC.

These are reincorporation of Matatiele into KwaZulu-Natal; reopening the Maluti Training College and making it an agricultural college to promote farming; tarring provincial roads; and making Matatiele a nodal point where development will be centred. —