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ANC councillors urged to put people’s need first

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The African National Congress (ANC) has pleaded with its councillor candidates for the Mamusa by-elections in Schweizer Reneke, North West, to put the interests of the community before theirs, should they be elected.

The municipality was dissolved last October. The provincial government cited the collapse of service delivery and financial mismanagement as the reasons for the dissolution.

ANC held its final rally in Schweizer Reneke on Sunday before the much-anticipated by-elections on Wednesday.

28 000 people have registered to vote in the nine wards that became vacant following the dissolution of the municipality.

The ANC unleashed its national executive committee members, led by national elections co-ordinator, Fikile Mbalula to woo voters.

While dishing out marching orders, Mbalula said interests of the community must always supersede those of individual councillors.

“We are happy about the candidates. As you could have seen, even around here, that they are grounded amongst the people. We will monitor them, implement strong monitoring mechanisms because nobody can be trusted with power. Absolute power corrupts. So, Mamusa needs a fresh air, needs change, because this place collapsed and we dissolved this particular municipality in the best interest of the people of this area.”

The co-ordinator of the ANC Interim Committee in North West, Hlomani Chauke says they won’t hesitate to withdraw any councillor again, should they fail to deliver service adequately to the community that would have elected them.

“We agreed that there’s going to be water, there’s going to be roads, there’s going to be housing, there’s going to be jobs. If we fail, and we did bot fail here because we did not have money. We failed here because the calibre of councillors that we put here, who are supposed to be delivering these services to the people, they’ve failed the people. They failed the people of Mamusa. The ANC  then came and removed them, working together with the community. The councillors that we are going to have tomorrow after the elections, are councillors that are selected by the community itself.”

For the locals who attended the rally, development of their municipality is of paramount importance.

One supporter says, “We have a water problem. The problem with the water is that there’s green stuff in the water. It is dirty, has soil and all that. So, the party that I’ll be voting for, I’m expecting a change.”

Another says, “We have been encouraging people of Schweizer Reneke to go and vote for ANC because we have trust in the ANC.”

Eight political parties and one independent candidate are contesting the by-elections.

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