Gauteng ANC takes stock as voter support dives, puts economy first

After a vast decline in voter support in the 2016 local elections and the 2019 national polls, the ANC in Gauteng has adopted a no-nonsense approach to polishing its public image.

ANC provincial chairperson David Makhura pledged yesterday to punish senior government officials, including mayors, if they were involved in corruption, mismanagement or service delivery failures.

In a hard-hitting speech at the ANC Gauteng Local Government Summit in Ekurhuleni – 18 months before the next local government elections – Makhura did not mince his words to an audience that included ANC mayors, councillors and provincial and national leaders.

“We have to confront the reality that poor performance must be punishable.

“Corruption, mismanagement and failure to deliver services to communities must lead to consequences, regardless of which party governs a district or metropolitan municipality.

“We are going to be hard on municipalities regardless of political membership. If you do not follow procurement procedures, we are going to crack the whip.”

Among areas earmarked by Makhura as priorities were:

• Delivery of basic services.
• Public participation, which involved elected public representatives accounting to communities.
• Fostering economic development and spatial transformation to deliver on business opportunities, jobs and housing.

Having lost Tshwane and Johannesburg in 2016, the ANC in Gauteng attained 45.84% votes in 2016 and 50.19% in 2019, signalling voter unhappiness with service delivery in some ANC municipalities.

“In the run-up to the 2019 polls, Gauteng became a prime prize for opposition parties. But despite winning with a slim margin, we are happy that people gave us a mandate of confidence to continue governing the province.

“We took note of the decline in our support and we are determined to rebuild the ANC in the province.

“The ANC in Gauteng is working hard to rebuild unity because factionalism can only weaken the movement and public confidence.” The summit is to adopt a programme of action which will be made public today.

Economy top of the list

The governing party has put economic development at the top of its priorities in its mid-term report focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the ANC-governed Gauteng.

The ANC in Gauteng conducted a mid-term assessment on local government for the period from 2016 to 2019 to measure progress on deepening democracy.

The review process was meant to assess ongoing progress to implement the 2016 local government elections manifesto of the ANC, using the Back to Basics programme as a framework.

Among many of its recommendations, the report compelled the ANC in Gauteng to reflect on the political concept of local government economic development.

The document, seen by The Citizen, said the ANC “should shape a much more coherent and integrated approach to local government in the context of the city region approach and developmental mandate of municipalities”.

The report also recommended that:

• A province-wide audit of the cost of repairing and revamping the ageing infrastructure.
• The provincial executive committee (PEC) should make it a priority during its term of office to build adequate political and technical capacity to lead and monitor municipal governance.
• The ANC should strengthen mandating mechanisms when deploying “comrades” to government, including clarifying which tasks must be performed.
• The land release programme should be fast-tracked across all ANC-led municipalities.
• The PEC should direct provincial government to develop a plan, working with municipalities, to complete all unfinished provincial projects in municipalities.
• Municipalities should strengthen by-law enforcement to restore law and order in communities.

“The ANC has the responsibility to play a decisive oversight role over the government that it is leading to ensure the vision of the ANC is translated into government programmes,”

Said the report: “In exercising oversight on ANC deployers, the ANC has to conduct regular performance reviews to assess progress registered or not in the implementation of its resolutions.”

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