ANC will not be drawn into DA’s ‘mind games’ and reveal mayoral candidates – Duarte

The African National Congress (ANC) says it will not be drawn into the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) “mind games” and release its mayoral candidates as challenged by John Steenhuisen.

Addressing a media briefing on Monday evening, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said that the party had submitted its candidates on time but would not release the names yet.

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She said that the ANC was not going to be drawn into releasing names of its mayoral candidates like other political parties.

This after Steenhuisen on Monday announced the DA’s mayoral candidates for the country’s five major metros ahead of the upcoming local government elections, scheduled for 27 October 2021.

Steenhuisen challenged the ANC to do the same thing as he said that this was going to give voters enough time to interrogate the candidates.

“You will notice that very few other parties have done this. The only other party to govern in municipalities and metros, the ANC, certainly does not seem to have any desire to announce its mayoral candidates,” Steenhuisen said.

Duarte said the ANC would not release the names of its mayoral candidates yet.

“We have put the mayors in, but unfortunately we don’t announce our mayors like other parties do and we will not be dong so for a while,” said Duarte.

Disgruntled members picket outside IEC offices

Meanwhile, some disgruntled members of the ANC staged a mini protest outside the Independent Electorate Commission‘ (IEC) headquarters ahead of the deadline to submit the 2021 local government elections councillor candidate list.

This was also confirmed by the Duarte on Monday.

“Some people felt that the members had not been given opportunity to participate at community level to select candidates,” said Duarte.

“We were aware of the mini protests from outside the IEC it was some branch from Tshwane,” said Duarte.

“The issue was that they felt that some of the members from the branch had not been given opportunity to participate in the selection of candidates from the level of the community. The community had selected somebody that the branch was not entirely happy with.”

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