ANC KwaZulu-Natal convenor Mike Mabuyakhulu says the party has rebuilt its structures and reconnected with voters as it enters the final 30 days of campaigning for the November 4 local government elections.
Mabuyakhulu was speaking on Monday at the launch of the ANC’s 30-day election countdown outside Pixley KaIsaka Seme House in Durban.
He said political commentators and research houses had predicted a further decline in the ANC’s support, but had underestimated its ability to renew itself.
“As we rolled up our sleeves to execute on our mandate, certain pundits wrote our political obituary. Research houses forecast a further decline.
”These self-appointed mourners, at what they saw as the ANC’s death knell, judged us on past results, not on our movement’s ability to self-correct and reinvent itself,” Mabuyakhulu said.
“They wrote us off. The people of KwaZulu-Natal wrote us back.”
Mabuyakhulu said the party had focused on rebuilding its structures and reconnecting with communities through volunteers’ assemblies, Asiy’Ekhaya, door-to-door campaigns, political lectures, community meetings and house meetings.
He said the ANC’s campaign had focused on listening to communities, responding to their challenges and putting people at the centre of its renewal.
“The dormant base has been reawakened, and the fire in the belly of our activists and volunteers is burning again,” he said.
Mabuyakhulu said rival parties were now focusing on attacking the ANC rather than addressing the challenges facing municipalities.
He accused some of the party’s competitors of making extravagant promises and said those contesting the elections for the first time had no experience of running municipalities.
“With absolutely zero experience in running municipalities, they are requesting our people to take a gamble and vote for them,” he said.
Mabuyakhulu also alleged that some individuals associated with these parties were linked to acts of sabotage involving municipal infrastructure, particularly water infrastructure, to create a crisis that would remove the ANC from power.
Voters should distinguish between promises based on wishful thinking and programmes based on experience and tested solutions.
“The ANC offers the latter. Others protest. The ANC plans, delivers and builds.”
ANC to contest all KZN municipalities
Mabuyakhulu said the ANC would contest all municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, seeking to consolidate where it governs, improve its position where it co-governs and challenge for control where it is in opposition.
“The ANC is unbowed and remains convinced it is the future for the people of eThekwini, Mhlathuze, Msunduzi, Jozini, Newcastle, Ladysmith, Ixopo, uMngeni, Ray Nkonyeni, KwaDukuza, and many other municipalities,” he said, adding the ANC was seeking decisive victories across the province and believed its presence in municipalities represented an advance for the democratic project.
‘Thirty days is enough’
Mabuyakhulu said the countdown clock launched by the party represented the urgency of the final phase of its campaign.
He said it would instruct volunteers to reach communities that had not yet been reached and engage areas the campaign had not touched.
“Thirty days is enough time to win an election. It is not enough time to waste a single day,” he said.
Mabuyakhulu urged ANC supporters and volunteers to intensify their mobilisation ahead of the November 4 elections.
“We are unwavering. We are confident. We will not be distracted. We are focused. We are certain of victory,” he said.
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