ANC provincial chairperson in the Eastern Cape Oscar Mabuyane says despite all the challenges faced by the governing party, they managed to retain almost all the municipalities in the province except three hung municipalities.
“That is an outstanding achievement, comrades, in a province that has 39 municipalities, particularly when you consider the context of what is happening in other provinces where there is a huge shift in the electoral landscape,” Mabuyane said.
He made the statement in his address to the special provincial executive committee meeting.
The ANC in the Eastern Cape obtained 62.99% votes that translated into 955 seats.
It is in control of 29 councils and leads in 31, but it needs to enter in coalition in two municipalities where it did not win an outright majority.
The province has three hung municipalities in Nelson Mandela Bay, Koukama and Dr Beyers Naude.
While applauding the resounding ANC victory in the province, Mabuyane, who doubles as the ANC provincial chairperson, said the party’s national performance was worrisome.
“Surely, this is not a very good picture at all and is a clear indication that things are not well within the movement.”
He noted that they had limited time to prepare for the elections, but their campaign was characterised by a unity of purpose.
“It was well coordinated and there was cooperation amongst all leaders and volunteers.
“Notwithstanding the challenges of resources that we had, limited T-shirts, in some instances our volunteers had sacrificed theirs and given them to communities.”
Mabuyane said they should equally shoulder responsibility for the three hung municipalities where they did not get enough votes to lead on their own.
“We must do a thorough assessment of why we failed to gain enough support in those municipalities and work towards fixing what went wrong.
“There is no better panacea to our challenges than humbling ourselves to the electorate, comrades, and admitting our shortcomings.
“There is equally no better way to repent than not repeating the mistakes we have made in the past,” he said.
“I believe our humble approach to regain the trust of our people has worked wonders in Nelson Mandela metro and we almost won back that council outright,” Mabuyane said.
He also said their task as the provincial leadership was to decide on their position regarding the hung municipalities in the province.
“I would like us to remember, comrades, that this is not about us and how we feel about working with opposition parties.
“There are thousands of people who voted for the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay metro, in Dr Beyers Naude and in Koukama.
“They rely on us to make informed choices about their future because they want development and services,” he said.
Mabuyane told the executive committee that they should be mindful that they were now compelled by circumstances to work hand in hand with their political and ideological opponents.
“What that means therefore is that we must set parameters upon which these coalitions will be built.
“Of critical importance are the points or areas of convergence.
“For instance, if we are to enter into a coalition with the DA, do we have areas where we converge, politically and ideologically?
“Surely, the delivery of services to the citizens of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro is the first area of convergence and commitment to clean governance might be the second area of convergence,” he said.
Mabuyane also called on the ANC to rise above party politics to lead the people of South Africa even in what he described a quagmire situation of hung municipalities.
He also noted that they would have to identify mayoral candidates using a set criterion to ensure those chosen were the best capable cadres for mayoral duties so that the ANC does better.
“We must stick to the criteria provided in selecting mayoral candidates but also ensure that we set monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to regularly assess the performance of our deployed cadres.
“Mayors in return should stick to the criteria that is provided in selecting mayoral committee members.
“That way we should put forward the best amongst our cadres to lead a positive change in local government,” Mabuyane said.
Political Bureau