Cape Town – The ANC has decided to set up a team to go into areas where it lost significant support in the last elections.
The party has over the last two polls been shedding votes in some parts of the country.
In the last elections its votes dropped from 53.9% in the 2016 local government elections to 47.90% in the 2021 polls.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa also said there were 66 hung municipalities, which was a record from 27 hung councils in 2016.
The ANC lost support in some of its former strongholds and forced parties to get into coalitions.
In its national executive committee meeting the ANC has decided to set up a rapid team that would go into areas where it lost support in the last three elections.
It said it would “set up a team of ANC election experts and leaders that can deploy a rescue to every region or sub-region where we lost significant votes in the last three elections and engage with structures on the elections analysis reports.”
The ANC NEC also said it would put in place another mechanism to deal with the lack of implementation of plans from municipalities.
It said it would “set up a permanent election capacity with a budget and strategic, message, research, by-election, monitoring and training capacity, backed up by a call centre that monitors implementation of municipal plans and ANC programmes.”
Communities have been complaining about collapsing infrastructure in municipalities in the last few years.
Service delivery protests have also been sweeping the country, with communities demanding services.
But a lack of infrastructure, upgrades and poor maintenance in municipalities has also led to complaints.
The ANC said it would set up a team to deal with these issues and look at whether plans for municipalities and ANC programmes were implemented.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Political Bureau