ANC will focus more on local government after losing votes at national elections
ANC mayors and opposition leaders from the country’s metro municipalities are meeting for the party’s national Lekgotla at the Birchwood Hotel in Kempton Park.
ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula during a media briefing on 22 February 2024. Picture: X/@MYANC
JOHANNESBURG - The African National Congress (ANC) will be shifting its focus towards local government.
The party says this tier of governance is where most issues are raised by voters.
ANC mayors and opposition leaders from the country’s metro municipalities are meeting for the party’s national Lekgotla at the Birchwood Hotel in Kempton Park.
This is the ANC’s first Lekgotla since the 2024 general elections
The ANC says its post-election research has shown many voters went into the 2024 general elections with issues of local governance at the top of their minds.
These include water, sanitation and electricity - which are under the purview of municipalities.
ANC national spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi said the Lekgotla focused heavily on strategies to stabilise and improve local government.
“There is a framework in law that says where there are problems, this is how you intervene and the intervention is not by disbanding a municipality, that’s not the starting point. The starting point is to provide them with structural support that can help them improve performance so if they fail at that level then you can go at section 139 and so on.”
Godlimpi added that the ANC had already started this by replacing mayors in Ethekwini and will also do the same in Johannesburg.