The ANC is intensifying its campaign for the November 4 Local Government Elections, targeting five key municipalities, including the City of Cape Town, in a bid to end the DA’s control over local government in the Western Cape.
Addressing a media briefing on Friday, ANC Western Cape Provincial Task Team Convenor Jerimia Thuynsma said the party has entered the final phase of selecting candidates and was focusing on municipalities where it believes it can make significant electoral gains.
Thuynsma identified Cape Town, Drakenstein, Stellenbosch, Saldanha Bay, and Laingsberg as strategic municipalities where the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is directly overseeing the selection of mayoral candidates.
He said branch nominations had largely been completed across the province, while interviews for proportional representation (PR) candidates were currently under way.
Candidates are being subjected to qualification verification, criminal record screening, and assessments of their experience and community leadership.
“The NEC has identified five key strategic municipalities where mayoral candidate interviews are being conducted directly by the national leadership,” he said.
According to Thuynsma, interviews have already been completed in four of the municipalities, while interviews for the Cape Metro mayoral candidates took place on Saturday.
“This process demonstrates our commitment to presenting ethical, capable, and community-centred leaders. We will soon announce all the successful mayoral candidates who have gone through these rigorous processes,” he said.
Much of the briefing focused on why the ANC believes voters should reject the DA at the polls.
Thuynsma cited the recent Constitutional Court judgment declaring the sale of the Tafelberg school site unlawful, saying it confirmed that the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town had failed in their constitutional obligations to address spatial apartheid and provide well-located social housing.
The ANC also outlined several priorities it intends to campaign on, including improving municipal service delivery, addressing the learner placement crisis, and tackling gang violence across the Cape Flats.
On crime, Thuynsma called for stronger coordination between the South African Police Service, intelligence agencies, and the South African National Defence Force in gang hotspots, while urging authorities to restore reportedly non-functional CCTV cameras in Khayelitsha.
He said the ANC would soon unveil its election manifesto, adding that the party intended to win back municipalities by fielding credible candidates and placing service delivery at the centre of its programme.
“We will do this by ensuring that we present credible candidates with requisite qualifications and integrity, by ensuring that at the centre of our programme are well-deserved services to our people as a whole,” Thuynsma said.
Lilita Gcwabe
iol.co.za
