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Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on ANC volunteers in Nquthu – where elections are being held later this month to replace the hung council that collapsed earlier this year – to ensure that they make a clean sweep.
Ramaphosa, accompanied by ANC provincial secretary Super Zuma, his spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli and several other members of the ANC provincial leadership and leaders from its Inkosi Bambatha region, made the call at a briefing with party volunteers in the municipality’s Ward 15 this morning.
Ramaphosa, who will continue campaigning in the area today and tomorrow ahead of the May 24 poll in the 33-ward municipality, said the outcome of the August poll, which delivered the hung council, had resulted in collapse and a failure to deliver services to residents of the area.
The by-election was called after KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube placed the council, which failed to quorate and elect an executive, under administration earlier this year.
The failure of the council – run by an alliance of the ANC and National Freedom Party prior to the August poll – to sit had been exacerbated by infighting in the IFP/DA/EFF alliance formed after the poll to counter the ANC in council.
The EFF withdrew one of its councillors, sparking a court challenge that crippled the council’s ability to sit.
Ramaphosa also warned that disruption to council functioning meant that people could not get services they desperately needed, including electricity and water.
The crisis had also affected the Mzinyathi District Municipality, under which Nquthu falls.
Saying that in rural towns, “life revolves around what the government can do”, Ramaphosa said that by ensuring that the ANC took every ward, they would ensure service delivery.
Earlier in the day, Ramaphosa paid a visit to the local traditional leader, Inkosi Bokang Molefe, whose family had supported the ANC since the struggle days, to pay respects to them for their contribution.
At the meeting Molefe requested that the ANC and government assist the families of youngsters who were murdered in the area in the apartheid era by hitmen aligned to then KwaZulu-Natal police.
Ramaphosa undertook to do so and also suggested that the government would begin the process of creating a local museum and memorial to honour those who died then.
Ramaphosa also conducted door-to-door visits in various wards and will later today meet with minority community leaders before holding a blitz at the main Nquthu taxi rank.
