ANC ward candidates for next year’s local government elections will be subjected to public scrutiny, ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane announced yesterday.
ANC president Jacob Zuma first introduced the system on the eve of the 2011 local elections but the process was so riddled with factional fights that it caused more problems than solutions.
The nomination process starts at branch level where members nominate four candidates by secret ballot. Screening committees in all regions then screen them before they are listed as ward councillor candidates.
“The process we adopted is that all four candidates are then presented as the ANC’s choice during a public meeting where members of the public are expected to share their views on whether these candidates meet their expectation as ward councillors.
“We don’t want to impose anyone. Where there are valid reasons on why residents attending these public meetings have an issue with the nominated candidates, the screening and deployment committee will take note of that and attend to those concerns,” said Mabuyane.
When Zuma announced a similar approach in 2011 there were deep divisions in several regions in the province. Branch members in areas such as Mthatha and Port St Johns even took the ruling party to court for alleged manipulation of the process.
The ANC won all the cases, but when the party’s national executive committee (NEC) assigned Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to look into it, she found the public view had been overlooked in some instances.
Dlamini-Zuma recommended that ANC ward councillors implicated in her report be recalled and the ward elections re-done.
In Buffalo City, 40 of the 50 ANC branches have already held their nomination meetings and in OR Tambo, 100 of the 134 branches had successful meetings.
Delays have been reported in Chris Hani, Joe Gqabi, Sarah Baartman and Amathole districts.
“They have all been affected by changes in boundaries as per the demarcation board’s recommendations towards next year’s elections,” said Mabuyane.
He said the regions likely to meet the end of December deadline were busy dealing with the consultation process already.
“We are not going on holiday.
“In fact as ANC members, we are not going anywhere.
“We will be working throughout the Christmas break to meet the end of December deadline set by our national leaders,” Mabuyane added.
But problems have continued to crop up at public hearings, Mabuyane admitted.
He said in Port St Johns, a branch leader who had marched out of a BGM when he was not nominated to be a ward councillor had then gone around inciting people to disrupt a branch meeting.
“If you can’t convince your comrades that you deserve to be a ward councillor, hard luck.
“Now we are saying in case you made the cut, be ready to account to members of the public within your ward before they see your name on the posters,” said Mabuyane.
Public debates for ANC’s new 2016 ward candidates
ANC president Jacob Zuma first introduced the system on the eve of the 2011 local elections but the process was so riddled with factional fights that it caused more problems than solutions.
The nomination process starts at branch level where members nominate four candidates by secret ballot. Screening committees in all regions then screen them before they are listed as ward councillor candidates.
“The process we adopted is that all four candidates are then presented as the ANC’s choice during a public meeting where members of the public are expected to share their views on whether these candidates meet their expectation as ward councillors.
“We don’t want to impose anyone. Where there are valid reasons on why residents attending these public meetings have an issue with the nominated candidates, the screening and deployment committee will take note of that and attend to those concerns,” said Mabuyane.
When Zuma announced a similar approach in 2011 there were deep divisions in several regions in the province. Branch members in areas such as Mthatha and Port St Johns even took the ruling party to court for alleged manipulation of the process.
The ANC won all the cases, but when the party’s national executive committee (NEC) assigned Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to look into it, she found the public view had been overlooked in some instances.
Dlamini-Zuma recommended that ANC ward councillors implicated in her report be recalled and the ward elections re-done.
In Buffalo City, 40 of the 50 ANC branches have already held their nomination meetings and in OR Tambo, 100 of the 134 branches had successful meetings.
Delays have been reported in Chris Hani, Joe Gqabi, Sarah Baartman and Amathole districts.
“They have all been affected by changes in boundaries as per the demarcation board’s recommendations towards next year’s elections,” said Mabuyane.
He said the regions likely to meet the end of December deadline were busy dealing with the consultation process already.
“We are not going on holiday.
“In fact as ANC members, we are not going anywhere.
“We will be working throughout the Christmas break to meet the end of December deadline set by our national leaders,” Mabuyane added.
But problems have continued to crop up at public hearings, Mabuyane admitted.
He said in Port St Johns, a branch leader who had marched out of a BGM when he was not nominated to be a ward councillor had then gone around inciting people to disrupt a branch meeting.
“If you can’t convince your comrades that you deserve to be a ward councillor, hard luck.
“Now we are saying in case you made the cut, be ready to account to members of the public within your ward before they see your name on the posters,” said Mabuyane.
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