ANC says it has learnt from past mistakes as it vows ‘capable’ municipal leadership ahead of elections

ANC says it has learnt from past mistakes as it vows 'capable' municipal leadership ahead of elections The ANC has the capacity to lead municipalities effectively following a rigorous selection process for its local government election candidates, the party has promised. Speaking on Monday, a day after the launch of its election manifesto, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula emphasised that party did not choose just anyone to fill the mayoral seats. Instead, he said the ANC leadership invested time into analysing every prospective candidate to ensure they possessed the right qualifications, leadership experience, and capabilities. "The party has upped its ante based on the experience in the past," Mbalula noted, acknowledging that previous governance challenges have forced a shift toward stricter vetting. The internal selection process reached a critical milestone over the weekend when the ANC decided to postpone its final mayoral candidate announcement until September. The party shortlisted 42 nominees across eight key municipalities. Mbalula admitted that the party made "costly and dire" mistakes in the past, but insisted that the party is actively fixing them. "Some of those mistakes and weaknesses have been corrected; we have a plan that is not based on fiction but on reality," he explained. "We talk about water, electricity, fixing potholes, budgets, building more houses for our people, creating good infrastructure for shelter, and at the same time dealing with the question of a new urban settlement and upgrading informal settlements." He further asserted that these plans are already being implemented, even with what he described as complex and restrictive environments of coalition governments. According to Mbalula, where the ANC holds an outright majority, it has historically "done wonders". He pointed to the City of Johannesburg before the advent of coalition politics as an example. "The ANC was doing good; we fixed potholes, we did all of these things where we governed on our own, and we were able to do things differently on our own consistently," Mbalula argued. He attributed modern municipal instability to the unpredictable nature of coalition partners. "The municipality fell into the hands of the coalition... We have people who we have got no control over, so that on its own does not account to be a weakness, but does not give us total power to totally govern," he stated. Mbalula singled out the Emfuleni municipality as a major disappointment for the ANC. While maintaining that the party "did its best" as the majority party, he stated that "once it fell into the hands of the coalition government, it became worse". He said that the ANC is doing all it can within the context of coalitions but ultimately aims to regain a total majority to decisively fix these deep-seated issues.