MBOMBELA – The local government elections couldn’t have come at a better time than now as the provincial ANC Chief Whip at the legislature, Mr Johan Mkhatshwa (JM) declared “victory is certain for us to reclaim more than 90 per cent of the votes because the people shall have spoken”.
Mpumalanga News (MN): Is the ANC ready to defend its stronghold in all wards?
JM: We’re more than ready to sweep the boards clean.
MN: What does the party have in hand to win over the electorate?
JM: We have the capacity to lead and rule. We have the experience of governance. We’ve been tried and tested and have overcome many hurdles since the dawn of democracy, dismantling the shackles of apartheid. Normalising the living conditions of our people, has not been an overnight success, but it is still an ongoing agenda to balance the scales, but we enter these elections with a bag full of success stories.
Who better can continue this journey of change than us who’ve survived the brunt of racial segregation and oppression and normalised it?
MN: Various surveys by Ipsos, a
survey company are constantly being publicised signifying dwindling support
for the ruling party. Are these a true reflection of the situation in the province?
JM: Those are mere opinions
and have catapulted us to even
working harder than before, not because we’re scarred or intimidated by such outcomes, but because as members of the ANC, we are duty-bound, on a daily
basis, to ensure that the lives of our
people are secured and our presence is needed every minute of their lives, that is our culture in the ANC.
MN: Are you threatened by the opposition?
JM: Certainly not because we are the elephants in the political play field, and they are the ants. Certainly, an elephant can’t even feel it when it crushes the ant. Our focus is not on them, but the people and we’re on the right track as always.
MN: Describe life under the ANC leadership after the elections.
JM: For us, it will be a continuity of our current task to accelerate deliverance in all quarters of our society. We’ve always been working according to plan and we’ll bolster our administrative and political core to ensure efficiency and transparency. We’re not requesting to be given a chance like the opposition, we know and have been successful in the past.
MN: Is the 90 per cent requested by Jacob Zuma attainable?
JM: More than 90 per cent will be attained. The people have trust and faith in us and we continue doing the right
things, hence we will deliver that absolute victory on a silver platter to the president.
