ANC at war with itself: Mbalula refuses to tell Joburg who the party plans to put forward as mayor

The ANC appears to be clashing with its regional leadership in Johannesburg over who the rightful mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg should be.

This comes after the regional secretary, Sasa Manganye reportedly questioned the decision of the party’s national leadership to have several mayoral candidates for the City of Johannesburg instead of one.

He did this at an event honouring the life of struggle veteran Albertina Sisulu this week.

Traditionally, the ANC would select its regional chairperson to become the party’s mayoral candidate at election time.

However, in this round of elections, the ANC has several mayoral candidates, including the current mayor, Dada Morero, a former chairperson of the ANC in Johannesburg.

ANC mayoral candidates

At a press conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday, the party’s secretary-general, Fikile Mbalula, said the national office bearers will decide the final mayoral candidate after the elections, which are less than two weeks away.

“What the ANC did not do is to put a candidate before the people. There is nothing wrong for people to have ambitions to become mayor, to be considered, but it starts first by winning.

“By winning a vote, any of those people who were raised as candidates and all of that have the potential and the capability of being a mayor in any city, and the officials will take that particular decision post the election,” he said.

A call to focus on the ANC’s victory

Mbalula said ANC councillor and mayoral candidates should, for now, focus on campaigning for the party and ensuring it gets enough votes to govern on its own in municipalities.

“You have to convince the people about the manifesto and why it is important to vote for the ANC before a position, so ANC members have been not just cautioned, they have been pulled to line to say focus on door-to-door and talking to the voter than talking about positions,” he said.

ANC internal battles

He said the ANC leadership in Johannesburg can express their views on the matter but the ultimate decision on mayoral candidates rests with the national officials.

“If the officials decide Loyiso is the right mayor, Mr Chikane is the right mayor, then that is the decision, none of those comrades can be prejudiced that they are no capable of anything else and so on.”

Mbalula refused to further comment on Manganye’s utterances.

“I do not know why they were saying those particular things. I can only explain the principle that the mayorship issue is with the national officials, not with the region.”

He said the region has played its role in submitting their nominations and now its up to the national officials of the ANC to make the final decision.

“We have interviewed people, we are done, we have shortlisted and then that is it,” he said.

The ANC Youth League has publicly thrown its weight behind Masuku.

In a recent interview, they told The Citizen that it would only be fair for Masuku to become the sole mayoral candidate because she is the party leader in Johannesburg and the region’s first female chairperson.

The Citizen understands that the ANC’s first deputy secretary-general, Nomvula Mokonyane, also supports Masuku as the sole mayoral candidate.