Tshwane University of Technology’s Political analyst Professor John Molepo said that the African National Congress (ANC) last-minute attempt to self-correct ahead of next year’s local government elections will not yield any positive results.
He said that the party has failed to decisively act against ill-discipline and corruption allegations amongst its councillors.
Molepo, who was speaking on YOU FM Newshour, was reacting to the party’s roll call held at the Goldrush Dome in Nasrec, which was attended by over 4 000 councillors from across the country’s 257 municipalities.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa outlined six key service delivery action plans, which were adopted by the party’s special National Executive Committee meeting at the weekend.
“Whatever the President had said today, is not the first time saying those things, it is something that has been said before.
All councillors deployed by their respective political parties to various municipal councils their mandate is clear, to deliver services to the residents.
So, having a head of state calling the councillors ordering them to deliver services, when in fact it should have been their mantra at all costs that they had to service people,” said Molepo.
Furthermore, Molepo said that there was nothing different and new about what the president outlined on the party’s service delivery action plan.
“For me, the president to be saying those things he said, is too late because they have been saying the same thing for many years now.
We know that his predecessors said the same things,” remarked the Professor.
He also weighed in on the country’s political system, where the electorates will not be represented by people aligned to any political party.
“Maybe to go a little bit further, are we as South Africans ready to have a person representing us who is not affiliated to any political party?
Because people have been deployed by various political parties, we have seen that the majority of them have failed so the new question we should be asking is are we ready for new politics in South Africa, where people are not aligned to any political party.
To me this roll call was just the demonstration of the party leaders that they are still in-charge of the processes of the ANC, and you could even hear the discussions that this is the last moment of a dying horse,” explained Molepo.
He said that ANC leaders are always dragging their feet when supporting their government representatives to hold accountable.
“There’s also a problem with the current administration that it takes time to address issues, there’s no such thing of decisiveness that comes from our leaders, even from the political party itself.
The reason I am saying this is because we have the Mandlanga Commission of Inquiry today, it’s purely because people failed to act on issues that were there.
Now they are still complaining about service delivery that councillors must ensure that services are delivered.
How long have these issues been raised?” asked Molepo.
Meanwhile, Ramaphosa has implored councillors not to ignore water leaks and sewage running in the streets, adding that they must treat community problems as they would in their own homes.
He also told them that they must be the first to know when problems arise in their communities and act swiftly.
