Quit ‘muddling along’, Mashatile urges ANC

ANC Gauteng leader Paul Mashatile has exhorted colleagues to go on the offensive in trying to regain power in local councils and metros where DA-led administrations hold sway.

Mashatile addressed a closed-door meeting of the provincial executive committee on Friday, warning that the party was in trouble and could lose Gauteng in the 2019 elections following its setback in the local elections last year.

“Muddling along as before might see us lose Gauteng in 2019, with some commentators even predicting the possibility of the ANC being out of power nationally in 2024,” Mashatile said, according to a copy of his prepared speech seen by the Sunday Times.

“There is a need for the ANC to come up with strategies to unseat the current [DA-led] governments and regain power. This is part of politics, as all political parties have [an] unwritten rule of employing any acceptable undertaking to stay in power.”

He outlined a programme of action for ANC structures in the province.

Where councils were led by coalitions between other parties, ANC leaders should visit the wards where the ANC had won last year to get its supporters to petition the opposition parties with complaints.

Mashatile said the ANC-run provincial government would flex its muscles to put pressure on opposition-run municipalities.

“The provincial government [should] strengthen its oversight responsibilities over the hung municipalities and also ensure that municipalities are closely monitored and reprimanded when they act against legislation,” he said.

Mashatile is MEC for local government. The department has shown its willingness to intervene in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Mogale City, citing recent conflicts in the councils and “contraventions of laws”.

The ANC plan is already being implemented in Johannesburg, where former mayor Parks Tau has embarked on a “listening tour”.

As part of his strategy, Mashatile wants ANC councillors to put pressure on opposition-led councils and hold the new leaders accountable.

“We should avoid being construed as a disruptive opposition as it is not good for democracy and may taint the image of the organisation. Opposing everything for the sake of opposing is not desirable.”

Mashatile said legislation should be amended to make affiliation to the South African Local Government Association compulsory for municipalities.

Johannesburg’s DA mayor, Herman Mashaba, decided to withdraw from Salga after Tau, his predecessor, was named as its chairman.

Mashaba denounced Salga as a body for ANC cadre deployment.

“It is advisable for the ANC to be effective where we are an opposition party in order to regain power in the key and strategic municipalities,” said Mashatile.

This week Mashaba announced that he had cancelled the Jozi@Work programme, saying it only enriched the ANC few.