Political analyst Ralph Mathekga believes that the African National Congress (ANC) will simply ask for forgiveness for its poor performance over the past five years and plead with the electorate to give it another chance when it unveils its manifesto for the 2021 local government elections in Pretoria on Monday.
South Africans will go to the polls on November 1.
Mathekga says the elections come at a time when many citizens are disgruntled with service delivery in many of the ANC-run municipalities.
“The manifesto will not be aggressive because the ANC is already battling with its history in local government when it comes to the record of delivery. So when it comes to the record it has which is quite a bad one and the manner in which the party is battling when it comes to properly managing municipalities, the best that they can do is just to have a moderated campaign,” explains Mathekga.
“A campaign that asks for just another chance that says we have made mistakes in many areas and we hope we can overcome that and that is just the best we can hope from the ANC, he adds.
The ANC is expected to ask South Africans to give it another chance to transform dysfunctional municipalities.
ANC Head of Elections Fikile Mbalula says the governing party will ensure that it observes the lockdown regulations when it unveils its election manifesto.
“If we wanted to look good and the fact that we want to proclaim that the ANC is doing well and showcase what we are doing, we will go to Ekurhuleni and we will also undermine COVID-19 regulations and fill up the stadium and show you our muscle,” he adds.
“We don’t doubt our muscle. Our campaign is a campaign of a mass party on the ground. We are not going to put our people at risk because we want power,” explains Mbalula.
Preview of the ANC 2021 Municipal Elections Manifesto:
Meanwhile, on Sunday, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa said young people will be a major factor in the party’s local government representation, with at least a quarter of the local government election candidates being youngsters.
Ramaphosa says the youngest ANC elections candidate is just 20 years of age.
The ANC President says 90 percent of those who registered as first-time voters during the registration weekend earlier this month were young people.
Ramaphosa address to the media ahead of ANC’s manifesto launch on Monday:
