Expect good governance in hung councils – ANC
THE ANC yesterday promised residents in the country’s hung municipalities that it would act in their best interests and deliver good governance.
The ANC held its extended national executive committee (NEC) meeting yesterday in Tshwane amid protests from its staff who have not been paid since August.
“The coalition deals we are doing, we are making them in the interests of our people. The ANC is entertaining coalition arrangements that will allow it to bring about stability in municipalities,” ANC national spokesperson Pule Mabe said outside the NEC meeting.
He assured ANC voters that the coalitions that have been formed are on the prescripts of good governance.
According to Mabe, ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile and deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte will deliver a report on which parties the ANC has been able to agree with and the kind of coalition arrangements on the table in hung municipalities across the country. “We’ve been doing quite well; parties have been making a lot of noise but the ANC has been quite careful on what it communicates.”
On disputes over the nomination of councillor candidates that have been raging over the past week, Mabe said the ANC was committed to resolving the disputes and is not going to renege on its promises.
“Where matters were not handled well and upon adjudication it is proven that you landed yourself in a ward without being nominated properly according to the processes of the ANC, you will be removed. We will see a by-election in that specific ward.”
Gauteng human settlements, urban planning and co-operative governance MEC Lebogang Maile said 10 out of the province’s 11 municipalities were hung. “What we, and the citizens of Gauteng, don’t want is a return to the chaos, disorder and in some cases almost total collapse of governance and stability that we witnessed post the 2016 local government elections. We therefore trust that our incoming councillors will at all times observe the Code of Conduct for councillors.”
Maile said the provincial government would deploy senior managers to all municipalities to observe and give support to municipal councils ahead of this week’s deadline for councils to sit after the local government elections.
At the weekend, opposition parties wanting to oust the ANC in the country’s biggest cities and municipalities expressed their disappointment with the DA after it refused to form a minority government in the City of Joburg.
ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, the African Christian Democratic Party and United Democratic Movement accused the DA of refusing the request made by the multi-party group to support ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba to become the mayor of Joburg.
The DA announced it would be fielding its Joburg mayoral candidate Dr Mpho Phalatse when the council votes for a mayor today. Randall Williams will be the DA’s candidate for Tshwane tomorrow when council is scheduled to sit. The DA was confident that in the City of Tshwane it would be able to put together an opposition coalition government with a majority of seats.