ANC’s Mabuyane sets high list of priorities
Rooting out white-collar crime, resolving the non-payment of contractors, creating jobs for youth and pushing key projects to boost the economy.
These are some of the priorities ANC chair Oscar Mabuyane lists for the Eastern Cape next year.
With the elections a few months away, Mabuyane said the party would rely on rural voters to push up their numbers to clinch an outright majority at the polls.
The ANC in the province is aiming for a 78% victory, which Mabuyane, who is also the finance and economic development MEC, believes is attainable. In the 2014 general elections, the ANC won the Eastern Cape with 70%, with the DA following behind with only 16%.
“We’re almost in that kind of momentum. There’s a lot of expectation in this province. We can’t get less than 70%. If we do that, it will affect the national figures,” said Mabuyane.
But the road will not be an easy one for the ruling party, which has faced its own demons in 2018. Mabuyane said the damage caused by last year’s now infamous “festival of chairs” has been one of their biggest challenges. The conference was marred by factional fighting which resulted in violence during the adoption of credentials.
Premier Phumulo Masualle later appealed the result of the conference with the National Executive Committee, the highest decision- making structure in the organisation. A report by NEC member Sbu Ndebele, which recommended a re-run of the elections, was rejected by the NEC, causing instability.
“The challenge was how to recover from a very difficult provincial conference, which almost complicated our situation more. We had a situation of repercussions of the conference that ran over to the national conference.”
Mabuyane, who was elected provincial chairperson at the September 2017 conference over Masualle, said the toxic social environment in the province played its role in the political decay.
“We have an environment in the political space where people are prepared to fight for positions to a point of damaging good brands – the brand called ANC.”
Mabuyane, who is leading the provincial list conference – signalling his rise to the position of premier – said he planned to root out corruption before his term ended.
“It is part of our agenda when we talk of renewal. It’s almost institutionalised in our government. White-collar crime is unfortunate and it’s a priority.”
He warned municipalities that non-payment of contractors and SMMEs would be dealt with harshly. Earlier this year, construction at 37 schools came to a halt due to a R104m debt to contract workers, who abandoned building sites for months.
“If we say pay SMMEs within 30 days, it’s a priority of this government because this is where we create jobs. If you don’t pay, you are part of those who are destroying jobs. As a province we are under pressure because there is a huge problem that we have, a perennial decline of equitable share which is meant to address a serious social infrastructure backlog.”
Diversifying the economy and creating employment for the youth are some of his other key projects for 2019.
“We must work very hard to deal with issues of economic development in the province, diversifying our economy so that our economy does not need to rely on the locomotive sector and bring in the oceans economy, agriculture and creative arts which is a gem in the province.”
The Mzimvubu Water Project as well as the N2 Wild Coast project will bring in the necessary economic boost for the province.
“If these projects can be implemented, it will move the province to another height.”..
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