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Gauteng Premier David Makhura does not want to be remembered for losing the rich provincial government to the opposition in this year’s elections.
He now has to halt the trend that saw the ANC on a slippery slope in the country’s economic heartland, losing the two key metros in Tshwane and Johannesburg in 2016, and barely hanging on to power in Ekurhuleni.
Confidential notes from Makhura’s political report to the Gauteng ANC executive committee last October, which City Press has seen, show that he is optimistic that the party has a big fighting chance.
But first it has to take care of certain risks and threats that could derail its campaign.
The ANC’s service delivery track record in Gauteng is incomparable with any province, he said.
“But elections are not won based on service delivery alone. We have to build credibility and win public confidence.”
He drew lessons from the opposition, saying they were “able to do a better job in communicating and acting as if they do a better job on governance”.
“They don’t govern better, they do a better job on communication. That’s where they beat us hands down.”
Makhura warned that too often the opposition was setting the agenda and the ANC was pressed to react, sometimes doing so in an indecisive and incoherent manner.
He said there was “more and more irrefutable evidence that they have messed up Tshwane and Johannesburg over the past two years”.
But “they remain believable, while we are not so believable”.
His antidote, to enhance the 2019 election campaign, was an ANC that governed with “integrity and urgency by dealing decisively with issues of public interest and community concerns”.
He wanted leaders and members to talk more about how Lesedi municipality in the Vaal was hot on the heels of the neighbouring DA-run Midvaal municipality.
He said Ekurhuleni, according to the latest Gauteng City Region Observatory Quality of Life Survey, had surpassed both opposition-run Johannesburg and Tshwane as the best performing metros.
At least three ANC municipalities were not doing well, namely Emfuleni in Vanderbijlpark, as well as Merafong and Rand West, both in the West Rand.
The ANC was too slow to act and bring stability and good governance to these areas, in the same way that it stuttered in implementing the integrity committee report on senior leaders guilty of bringing the name of the party into disrepute.
Makhura said the party bosses needed to be focused and systematic in intervening on all governance and organisational matters that posed risks to the 2019 elections.
He said the winning formula for 2019 was to craft good messages on jobs, crime and corruption as the top three concerns of citizens in Gauteng.
“If we are seen to be unable to deal with these three issues in a convincing way, we can lose elections in 2019.”
Not because we do not deliver, he said, “but because we are not trusted when it comes to the top three most important concerns of citizens”.
Makhura said his provincial administration could also do with more credit.
Public procurement from the townships increased from just R600 million in 2014 to R22 billion by 2018.
Exports to Southern African Development Community countries increased from R51 billion in 2014 to R90 billion in 2017.
He said there were many more achievements in infrastructure development, education, anti-poverty interventions, primary healthcare, human settlements and clean governance.
But if all else failed, the ANC could always count on President Cyril Ramaphosa as a trump card.
Makhura told the executive that “there is simply no other leader in our country at the moment who has gained so much confidence from both black and white business”, citing as evidence the R290 billion raised during last year’s investment conference.
He said the ANC needed to build positive campaign messages around Ramaphosa and the outcome of the investment conference.
“Our people must see that, under President Ramaphosa, the ANC is working for them.”
