African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has said there will be no discussions on President Jacob Zuma’s position as leader of the party during their four-day National Executive Committee meeting.
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But Mantashe said such demands were issues that must be dealt with during negotiations – and not at this NEC meeting. “There was no proposal that the president step down”. If there is somebody walking around thinking that we spent a billion because somebody said so, we want to apologise to that person.
He explained that the party had political and not technical discussions over the decline in support. The Communist Party also said that one single provincial leadership can not be singled out for the loss of support as the party lost votes across the country.
Mantashe said that, while the ANC has met with other parties to chat about possible coalitions, they realise that some of these talks might fail and they are ready for that. It said it will also investigate and act on reports of violations of the candidate selection process and it will seek to embark on training its councillors to ensure they lead municipalities in the interests of the people.
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With just four days to go before all of South Africa’s municipal councils are legally bound to hold their first meeting, there is still no official word of what coalitions might emerge in the 72 hung councils nationwide. But the future of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth are still up in the air as the Economic Freedom Fighters’ and smaller parties deliberate on whether to side with the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), the big winners in this election.
