Mpumalanga ANC elects new veterans’ chairperson
Fish Mahlalela said the newly elected leadership is not to just fill up space, but will ensure the party is kept on its toes while at the same time keeping a closer eye on government and service delivery.
The former Mpumalanga ANC chairperson, Fish Mahlalela, has returned to provincial party politics. Mahlalela, who currently serves as the deputy minister for tourism, was voted the provincial chairperson of the ANC Veterans League during the Veterans League’s provincial conference held at the eBundu Lodge on June 3.
This conference also elected Buscor boss and business magnate, Nora Fakude, as the new treasurer. Both of them were elected into their new roles unopposed and uncontested. Mahlalela will be deputised by Juliet Khumalo. Another party veteran, Wilson Mudau, was elected secretary and will be deputised by Ina Masombuka.
The ANC is made up of three leagues, the Youth League, the Women’s League and the Veterans’ League, respectively.
Speaking after the conference, Mahlalela said the newly elected leadership is not there just to fill up numbers, but will ensure the party is kept on its toes while at the same time keeping a closer eye on government and service delivery. “As the league, our main task is to guide the ANC at all times. Our responsibility is to intervene where there are challenges in the ANC and to be able to show them direction. It is the league’s responsibility to ensure that the ANC is still on track and doing the right things. And therefore we need to work with them to deal with the challenges,” said Mahlalela.
He said they are also worried about the snail’s pace in which municipalities are currently driving the service delivery vehicle.
ALSO READ: Ehlanzeni District Municipality receives 80 bins to beat plastic pollution
“We know the elephant in the room is service delivery at municipal level. And we will have to work together to jack up the work at municipal level and make sure that the administration is run by people with capacity, not friends and relatives who can’t even sell, market and communicate the municipality’s programmes because they just don’t have the skills to do so. We must get rid of all the deadwood in municipalities and replace them with competent people with the necessary skills and capacity so that we are able to improve service delivery and the way we communicate government programmes and projects. We owe our people all of this, and we dare not fail them,” stressed Mahlalela.
Mahlalela comes with vast political history and struggle credentials. In 1985, he joined the ANC and the MK (the ANC’s military wing) in Mozambique and Tanzania. He received military training in Ethiopia, Angola and the Soviet Union. After his training, he was deployed underground inside the country in 1989 and was arrested and detained for four months without trial in 1992.
