ANC President Jacob Zuma will lead a delegation to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro tomorrow to announce a new task team to run the troubled region.
This will be the fifth visit to the region by ANC top brass since October last year. The regional executive committee (REC) was disbanded last month, but no task team has been formed until now.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa yesterday confirmed the party’s top six officials would meet all stakeholders in the metro “the whole day on Friday and on Saturday”.
“It’s a follow-up to the December meeting, which resulted in the disbanding of the REC.
“Obviously there will be a task team, which will run the affairs of the region.
“The task team members will be known over the weekend when officials arrive there,” said Kodwa.
The announcement comes while there is wide speculation that current mayor Ben Fihla will be recalled.
The Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday that two names were on the cards for the mayoral position – deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni and former ANC youth league president and now ANC MP Mlungisi “Lulu” Johnson.
Kodwa refused to be dragged into any discussion of a possible reshuffle in the metro, although he did confirm there was instability within the party in the region which had spread to the council chambers, negatively affecting the running of the metro.
During the December visit to Port Elizabeth, the Zuma delegation faced the dilemma of whether to take the region to an early elective conference, or disband the structure and replace it with a task team.
The DA had indicated as far back as May that the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro was its next target after the party successfully took Cape Town and the Western Cape from the ANC.
The ANC suffered a major setback last November when an independent candidate for a ward council secured more than 60% support in Uitenhage.
The ward council position became vacant when Andile Gqabi was expelled from the ANC in August.
Gqabi, a former National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa leader, contested as an independent and won more than 60% of the vote against the ANC’s 36%.
“Part of the problem is that when you deal with issues of disbanding and an early conference, everybody works hard preparing for conference. As a result you replace a problem with another problem,” Kodwa said.
“…Don’t put timeframes for an early conference. You must build the organisation first.
“We need an active, strong structure…We must reclaim the ground in Port Elizabeth, organisationally.” — zineg@dispatch.co.za
Zuma heads for Bay again
This will be the fifth visit to the region by ANC top brass since October last year. The regional executive committee (REC) was disbanded last month, but no task team has been formed until now.
ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa yesterday confirmed the party’s top six officials would meet all stakeholders in the metro “the whole day on Friday and on Saturday”.
“It’s a follow-up to the December meeting, which resulted in the disbanding of the REC.
“Obviously there will be a task team, which will run the affairs of the region.
“The task team members will be known over the weekend when officials arrive there,” said Kodwa.
The announcement comes while there is wide speculation that current mayor Ben Fihla will be recalled.
The Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday that two names were on the cards for the mayoral position – deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni and former ANC youth league president and now ANC MP Mlungisi “Lulu” Johnson.
Kodwa refused to be dragged into any discussion of a possible reshuffle in the metro, although he did confirm there was instability within the party in the region which had spread to the council chambers, negatively affecting the running of the metro.
During the December visit to Port Elizabeth, the Zuma delegation faced the dilemma of whether to take the region to an early elective conference, or disband the structure and replace it with a task team.
The DA had indicated as far back as May that the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro was its next target after the party successfully took Cape Town and the Western Cape from the ANC.
The ANC suffered a major setback last November when an independent candidate for a ward council secured more than 60% support in Uitenhage.
The ward council position became vacant when Andile Gqabi was expelled from the ANC in August.
Gqabi, a former National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa leader, contested as an independent and won more than 60% of the vote against the ANC’s 36%.
“Part of the problem is that when you deal with issues of disbanding and an early conference, everybody works hard preparing for conference. As a result you replace a problem with another problem,” Kodwa said.
“…Don’t put timeframes for an early conference. You must build the organisation first.
“We need an active, strong structure…We must reclaim the ground in Port Elizabeth, organisationally.” — zineg@dispatch.co.za
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