ANC Dr WB Rubusana chair and Buffalo City Metro mayoral incumbent and hopeful Princess Faku has called on party members to forgive disgruntled comrades who defected to rival parties and persuade them to return ahead of the November 4 local government elections.
Faku told ANC supporters at the region’s manifesto launch at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane that she believed former members would return to the party after the elections if the ANC retained its majority in Buffalo City.
“There is no other organisation, those who left were taken and promised they will become councillors,” she said.
“I know others are not happy but comrades let’s go and beg them, others will come back after the 4th and we will welcome them because the ANC is their home.
“We must campaign in one voice for the victory of the ANC.”
Faku was referring to disgruntled members who left the ANC in several wards over dissatisfaction with the selection of councillor candidates.
The defections have compounded divisions within the ANC, with three councillors recently resigning from the party’s Buffalo City caucus to join the Patriotic Alliance.
Kuhle Ciliza, Pearl Hanse and former ANC PR councillor and mayoral committee member Graham Lottering joined Gayton McKenzie’s party in April.
At the time, the three accused the ANC’s regional leadership of manipulation and interference, saying service delivery in their areas had been compromised.
Other ANC members have since defected to the UDM, which has unveiled its deputy president, Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, as its mayoral candidate.
Faku, who is among four contenders for the ANC’s mayoral candidacy, urged members not to allow divisions over the candidate list to derail the party’s campaign.
The ANC’s Dr WB Rubusana regional secretary, Anele Lizo, flew to Johannesburg to submit the region’s candidate list to the party’s electoral committee before Friday’s IEC deadline.
Faku expressed concern that most of the candidates on the list were men.
“The party submitted its councillor list, the people who supported other councillors must not be victimised, where there’s divisions, we will intervene as the ANC.
“We are done with the list; it has been submitted. About 35 councillors are males, they were chosen by you [so] don’t be shocked, they must work.
“When you are a councillor, your phone must be open 24 hours,” she said.
She warned that ANC councillors would face greater scrutiny if elected, saying residents were demanding visible service delivery.
She also urged candidates who failed to make the list to remain loyal to the party.
“Those who did not make it, we always make provisions for yourself. Your children will never go hungry.
“Even me, when I don’t make it, I will go somewhere and be a chief of staff or an MP, the ANC groomed us, we have qualifications because of the ANC today.
“There’ll be one mayor in BCM, and we will support that mayor,” she said.
Potential mayoral contenders Simphiwe Dzengwa, Ncedo Kumbaca and Nocawe Mafu also appeared on stage at the manifesto launch.
The ANC’s national top seven, which is responsible for selecting mayoral candidates in metropolitan municipalities, has yet to decide which of the four frontrunners, including incumbent Faku, will lead the party into the elections.
ANC NEC deployee Dr Bejani Chauke also called on members to put their differences aside and focus on the campaign.
“The very democracy Dr Rubusana helped to build has also tested our unity.
“Electing leaders is never easy. It involves difficult conversations, competing views and sometimes disappointment.
“This is the nature of any genuine democratic process,” he said.
“Our democracy does not end with the selection of candidates. It continues in how we rally behind those candidates.
“It continues in how we demonstrate to the world that the ANC is bigger than any individual, any faction, or any grievance,” Chauke said.
He challenged voters to judge elected councillors by their performance rather than their campaign promises.
Chauke said the ANC’s vision for Buffalo City centred on restoring service delivery, repairing infrastructure, growing the township economy and improving accountability.
He identified reliable water, sanitation, electricity and refuse collection, road and stormwater repairs, street lighting and pedestrian safety as key priorities.
The ANC also plans to support informal traders, small businesses and young entrepreneurs while accelerating housing delivery and informal settlement upgrading.
“Buffalo City must work better. Services must be reliable and affordable, and councillors and officials must be ethical and accountable,” Chauke said.
