President Cyril Ramaphosa has read the riot act to ANC councillor candidates for the upcoming elections as he warned that they would be kicked out if they continued with the bad practices that have plagued municipalities, including corruption.
Ramaphosa was addressing the hybrid councillor candidate “roll call” event in Alberton, Ekurhuleni, on Tuesday. Almost 10,000 candidates were made to sign a pledge of service to the communities they represented.
Ramaphosa said the pledge, which had never been done before, was a commitment by the party “to do better and be better” in terms of how it conducted itself.
“You have promised to take nothing from the people of our country. Through this pledge that is what you have said. You have also promised to accept no inducement and promised no fraud or patronage.
“We will not protect any ANC leader, public representative or member who faces charges of corruption or other serious offence. The law must take its course and justice must be done,” Ramaphosa said.
The party, which has been on an aggressive campaign trail in metros and troubled municipalities across the country, will be fielding 4,468 ward candidates and 4,937 proportional representation candidates ahead of the elections, which are set to be fiercely contested.
Ramaphosa stressed that while the pledge included being responsive, available and of service to communities, it was important that it included ending corruption, fraud and patronage in municipalities.
“We know that some of our councillors have not offered solutions to our people. We know that some of our councillors have grown distant from our communities and appeared arrogant and unconcerned. This comes to an end with this election,” he said.
He said the party had done much work to ensure renewal since the 2019 general elections at upper spheres of the government and that it was now time to cascade this down to municipalities which were marred by dysfunction and collapse.
He called on the party’s candidates to lead the cleanup of communities and townships which he described as “just filthy with litter just all over” with sewage spilling.
“Functioning local government is vital to the recovery of our economy, investment and job creation. Every town must be a place where businesses can thrive and where investors can be confident that they will achieve sustainable returns as they create jobs. We make this commitment because we know that we have not always lived up to the expectations of our people.
“We know that there are areas where we have disappointed our people, where services have not been delivered, where corruption has taken hold and where infrastructure has not been maintained,” he said.
Former ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who heads the party’s national electoral committee, said the party was aware that there were still great concerns in communities over disputes that had not been resolved relating to the candidates selection process and that the party was planning to resolve them before the end of next month.
The ANC had indicated that it would only be able to resolve the more than 700 remaining disputes after the elections as it was now focusing on maximising its electoral fortunes ahead of the polls.
Provincial list committees have been directed to process disputes by November 15 and that his committee will finalise all appeals by November 30.
While some of the candidates still faced the possibility of being removed and replaced through a by-election if the disputes against their selection, Motlanthe called on the candidates to be humble and serve communities if they win.
“There is no higher honour than being chosen to represent the people, represent the people of the specific ward you come from,” he said.
The party is set to hold its Siyanqaba Rally on Friday next week to conclude its campaign.
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