ANC being branded an unviable opposition in Western Cape not the ‘correct analysis’

CAPE TOWN - The African National Congress (ANC) in the Western Cape says it is being unfairly criticised by the party’s youth league for not being an effective opposition in a province it hasn’t governed since 2009.

During the party’s birthday anniversary last week, ANC Youth League leader Collen Malatji said the party needed to be a more active opposition to expose the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) governance of the province.

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Speaking at the January 8th celebration in Khayelitsha on Saturday, the leader of the opposition in the provincial legislature, Khalid Sayed, said the party had greatly improved its oversight since the election of the new Provincial Executive (PEC) in 2023.

Much of the ANC’s anniversary programme in the province centred on pointing out the squalid conditions many face in Cape Town’s townships, the traditional supporter base for the party in the province.

Khalid Sayed said its leadership was prepared to discuss the youth league’s views that it was not doing enough to challenge how the DA ran the province and the city.

"We do not think that’s the correct analysis. If those leading leagues can just look at the media in the Western Cape and see the vibrancy that we’ve brought. We are only an eight-member opposition bench guided by the PEC."

Sayed welcomed more engagement with the party’s structures and invited the youth league to spend time in the province to assist the PEC in being more vibrant.

"The kind of direction we have been able to drive, even in terms of the DA’s own government policies… that paints another picture."

Sayed said he believed the ANC had conducted an effective campaign to listen more to the concerns of the province’s residents.