Thabile Mange, in his letter to the News in the 20 May edition (Who will be the DA mayoral candidate in Mogale City), suggests that the ANC will retain the municipality.
I would be interested to know what evidence he has evaluated to support his view or whether this is based on intuition and guesswork. Let’s discuss this again after the votes have been counted.
Mr Mange refers to the Mayoral Candidates that have been appointed by the DA in the large Metropolitan municipalities and asks who the candidate will be in Mogale City and when they will be appointed. I am sure that Mr Mange will agree with me that the dynamics in the Metros are very different from those of a municipality like Mogale City. It is for this reason that our candidate has not yet been elected or announced. I can assure Mr Mange that the candidate that we elect will be fit for purpose. In other words, he (or she) will have all the right attributes to perform the job, whether that be expertise, race, surname or any other criteria that we deem applicable.
Mr Mange suggests that there are black councillors who are unhappy at not being re-elected and that they were not aware of the criteria that were used to select candidates. In addition, he indicates that some of these councillors plan to join other parties.
My view on this matter is that if sitting councillors are not aware of the selection criteria, then maybe they do not deserve to be re-elected. Secondly, let me be the one to tell Mr Mange that we in the DA do not mobilise on the basis of race but on the basis of values. Thus there are also white councillors who are disappointed at not being re-elected. All political parties are subject to this illness called “electionitis” at election time. In the ANC, they resort to violence over their lists, while we in the DA are a little more politically mature.
In terms of the threat that aggrieved councillors will join other political parties, it is interesting for me how an individual can be totally committed to and supportive of a political party’s principles and policies one day, and the next, because of personal disappointment, he or she supports the different principles and policies of a different party. In my view this calls into question their morality. Having said that however, any individual is entitled to join any party of their choice. We wish them well in their new parties.
Finally, a comment about our selection process. Our process is as democratic and scientific as it can be. Our councillors are evaluated on their performance over the last 4 years, an online political orientation test and an interview by a panel. I would like to challenge Mr Mange to devise a process that is more empirical than that of the DA.
Please contact me if you are able to do so.
