ANC scrambles to headhunt mayors – but where was it looking before?

The latest great plan to improve South Africa coming out of Luthuli House: headhunt mayoral candidates.

Surely the former minister of razzmatazz should be aware that mayoral candidates are not simply headhunted. They’re poached from other parties with the promise of a seat they’re unlikely to get so as not to upset any party incumbents. Duh, Fikile Mbalula.

Being serious for a moment, let’s take a look at the list of the kinds of people they are looking for; experienced public representative, professionals, community leaders, veterans of government and individuals with proven leadership track records and governance capability.

That would sound fantastic if it didn’t beg the question; then where have they been looking until now? What were the qualifiers before?

Supposedly this is some sort of new approach sought to move away from traditional ANC internal processes. Was the party not looking for quality mayoral candidates before, or has it taken five election cycles to realise that the internal processes were not yielding quality candidates?

As much as the ANC is going to take a hit in the local government elections, they’re still going to do well and take a significant, if not majority, portion of the municipal seats and mayorships.

I want their elected officials to succeed, as I’m so sure any person in any town wants their mayor to succeed. I would love a quality mayor, regardless of the party they come from.

I don’t know what happens in those national executive committee meetings but I can tell you for free, to start now and have a candidate list by June is going to be a tall order. Talk about leaving things to the last minute, and you’re not exactly talking about giving the impression of a successful endeavour.

Far be it for me to determine how any party picks its candidates. I just don’t think that a committee can vet the quality of candidates for close to all of 257 mayorships in three months… especially coming from the party that gave us mayors that did very little in three years.

After vetting, there’s probably some internal process with appeals and the inevitable court case on the outcomes. No. This is no way, nor timeline to pick mayoral candidates. It does, however, speak to a culture of box ticking.

We need mayoral candidates. Okay, let’s look for some. The ANC has its OR Tambo School of Leadership. Where are those alums? Where are those community activists who would be obvious picks to any party actively involved in their communities? Where are the people that should have been identified years ago and prepared to campaign (and lead).

This still has the feel of a couple of guys getting around a braai at 2am and discussing, “You know who’d be good for Mafube?”, “Solomon! Give him a call”.

And that discounts all the other problems such a short process comes with. What if the candidate doesn’t align enough with party ideals? What if they aren’t aware of expectations? What if they don’t pass muster and need to be replaced before the election… or after?

Candidacy for leadership is not something that one just puts their hands up for and says: “Me, I’m here.” It certainly isn’t something you hand to a person by saying; “You. Here.”

Candidacy for leadership, especially in high public office, is not something to play around with if you want quality results. It’s something you identify early, preferably in a previous election cycle, and develop.

It’s all good and well to go headhunting, but the best game needs some time to grow in the veld before you take your shot.