By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula led a report back meeting with party’s ward councilors in Turfontein, South of Johannesburg, on Sunday.
The party held a roll call event last week where, President Cyril Ramaphosa directed councilors to play their role in improving services in their respective communities.
Mbalula said councillors remain the first point of call for communities and must remain visible in addressing people’s concerns.
“In reality, comrades, there are people who some of them since we deployed have never called a community meeting. You will never succeed, whether good or bad, you will never succeed if you don’t connect with the people.”
Mbalula acknowledged shortcomings but highlighted efforts to train councillors. “We have admitted where there is no capacity, we must deal with that. We have trained our councilors and many of them have responded well.”
Mbalula also defended Ramaphosa’s remarks on municipal audits.
Earlier this week, Ramaphosa told councillors that municipalities run by the Democratic Alliance (DA) performed better in Auditor-General reports.
Mbalula said the president was not praising the DA but highlighting the audit findings.
“The people will follow the truth. That is what is important for us. We are busy now with the roll-call of our representatives. If the people want to deal with the ANC, let them talk about real, concrete issues. The masses understand very well what the President is talking about.
“What is important for them is for us to do the things that we have set for ourselves in terms of our plan of action. If the President can say that ANC-led municipalities are run very well in terms of the Auditor General’s report, they would have equally produced evidence that Ramaphosa is not telling the truth,” he said.
In the Western Cape, ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe said the DA’s good service delivery record is a myth.
“We must the deal with the myth of a da-way of governing. It’s a myth. What we should unpack and breakdown into simple understandable pieces – it’s the fact that, yes, the DA is doing well in white suburbs (and) it is neglecting townships.
Therefore, our councillors who are happening to be in townships, they have a responsibility to pick up their socks and take their fight to the DA, which controls the council.”
The ANC is also facing a tripartite alliance division after the SACP resolved at its 2022 national congress to explore contesting elections directly.
In 2024, the party reaffirmed that it would indeed contest the 2026 local government elections, citing the need to deepen working-class power and provide a more direct socialist alternative to communities.