NC nomination process begins for local elections

It’s all systems go for the ANC as it prepares for the local government elections taking place on October 27.

The party’s national electoral committee chair, Kgalema Motlanthe, this week gave the go-ahead for structures to begin with nominating candidates to take up seats in municipalities.

In correspondence sent out to all provincial secretaries, Motlanthe said branch nominations for ward and proportional representative (PR) councillors should be concluded by the end of May. By June, all PR candidates should be subjected to an interview process by their respective regional interview and vetting panels, while ward councillor candidates should be processed by the provincial list committees.

By mid-August all successful candidates should be registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). The ANC is pressing on with its election campaigns following a tense week at Luthuli House which saw a public battle play out between party president Cyril Ramaphosa and secretary Ace Magashule.

The current term of local government was supposed to have ended by May, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the elections were postponed to October.

In correspondence dated May 5, Motlanthe said provincial list committees (PLCs) would also be established.

All the provincial executive committees (PECs) and ANC alliance partners will be invited to nominate members to serve on the PLC.

“The PLC should be approved by the PEC and be made up of three senior ANC members who no longer occupy elected positions in the NEC or PEC or regional executive committees, with no direct personal interest in the outcome of the candidate selection process,” he said.

Of the three senior ANC members, Motlanthe said at least two should be women.

He said each of the ANC leagues’ provincial executives would have to nominate one person to the list committee, with the leagues also encouraged to elect women in those positions.

Each of the ANC alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, together with the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), will have to elect one member to the list committee. The PLCs, which Motlanthe said should be in place by May 10, will have to oversee the nomination and selection process, and will report directly to the electoral committee he chairs.

The regional interview and vetting panels, Motlanthe said, would analyse challenges and weaknesses in each municipality and be responsible for ensuring that the ANC had the capacity to run an effective and clean municipality.