THE ANC Regional Executive Committee spent the weekend campaigning in Glencoe and we are upbeat about our prospects of winning control of Umzinyathi District Municipality and Endumeni Local Municipality. Volunteers joined the leadership from as far as Greytown, Msinga and Nqutu as well as volunteers from all Endumeni wards. The ANCÂ came in with a large contingent of volunteers to Ward 3 Sithembile and Ward 7 Glencoe Town.
The programme on Saturday and Sunday took place amidst freezing cold weather but our volunteers proved that not even the chilling winter weather would deter them from doing the work of the ANC. Such is the love for the movement and the ANC is grateful to all these comrades for moving the revolutionary movement forward and advancing service delivery to new levels.
The voters of Sithembile are very excited to vote ANC in large numbers even though there are a small group of people from that community who want to destabilise the community by peddling lies about the ANC , but despite all this misinformation the people whom we visited were very upbeat and excited to vote ANC and many expressed their views openly about the ANC retaining comrade Lungile Mbele as our candidate, the leadership explained the ANC processes to our voters and we were happy to know that they were very understanding. Whatever mistakes, if there any on the side of the councillor can and will be corrected. That was the assurance from the leadership.
We as the leadership did not mince our words. The manifesto of the ANC must be followed very strictly by our councillors. That is the mandate and councillors who do not implement the mandate around the country will be dealt with by the ANC in terms of the organisations own internal processes. The ANC was forwarded with a list of four names by all branches around the country. Each of the four names went through various procedures and the National List Committee made a final decision. It was not easy for the NLC to please all the comrades around the country.
So having reached out to a large section of the community we felt satisfied that we can win this ward once again. Our people out there have genuine concerns. We deal with these concerns each day so they are not new to us. We want to live by the principle of ‘’ keep trying but try not to fail’’ and day by day people come to our offices for help. We try to make sure that they are given the help that they need. We will be back in Ward 3 soon.
The programme on Sunday was in Ward 7 Glenridge area. The ANC was overwhelmed and pleased by the reception that we received. People mainly in the Indian section of the area received our cadres with so much of love and kindness. They were not surprised to see us but we were taken to task for being late. They were very honest about their dissatisfaction with the slow pace of service delivery in the area. They also asked a lot of questions about the candidate and about the credentials of the candidate. They were not happy that Glencoe was not properly and speedily serviced in the past five years. They did admit that some services were received but much more was required.
The ANC leadership took collective responsibility for these challenges and refused to blame the previous councillor as an individual. The ANC made certain mistakes and having listened to the people first hand we undertake to make certain that these mistakes do not repeat itself. We are not a perfect political party. No political party can claim to be perfect. Yet we gain our strength by working at grassroots level and by having our ears on the ground. We will try and never fail to try to address the problems facing the community.
Interestingly people have requested T-shirts and we will try to deliver as many as we can to our prospective supporters.
In a briefing, held after the door to door campaign with ANC volunteer staff the leadership listened attentively to so many concerns from volunteers relating to the choice of candidate. Under the able guidance of the Regional Secretary comrade Bheki Lembede who was assisted by the Regional Chairperson and District Municipality Mayor comrade Lindokuhle Ngubane and Deputy Regional Chairperson who is also Endumeni Municipal Mayor comrade Thulani Mahaye comrades were taken through the dynamics of arriving at the decision.
After a marathon three-hour meeting the volunteers accepted that everything which they will be doing will be to assist the ANC to win the ward. They accepted that the elections are about the ANC victory and not an individual victory. So in this context we are proud of the work done by our volunteers up to now.
If we keep working at this pace we are sure to win both ward 3 and ward 7 along with the other 5 wards. We caution that a loss of any ward by the ANC will take service delivery backwards and we hope that our voters will understand it in this context. Amandla!
Contributed by Endumeni Mayor Thulani Mahaye
ANC Inkosi Bamabatha Region Head of communications
