ANC confident that Pietermaritzburg will rally behind it

The ANC, in its final push to woo voters for the May 29 general elections, has deployed its top brass for its campaign in KZN and the uMgungundlovu District.

On Tuesday, the ANC’s first deputy secretary-general and former water and sanitation minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, was joined by the party’s KwaZulu-Natal secretary, Bheki Mtolo, on the campaign trail in Pietermaritzburg.

Other ANC national leaders deployed to the province include secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe, ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) president Sisisi Tolashe, and ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Collen Malatji.

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Speaking during a door-to-door campaign in Imbali Unit 14, Mtolo said the ANC was “ready to do battle”.

“The entire ANC national executive committee (NEC) has been deployed here in KZN. We are all over the province of KZN,” he said.

Mtolo and Mokonyane’s visit to KZN comes a few days after the KZN Cabinet restored full executive powers to the Msunduzi Municipality, which has been under administration since 2019.

While some opposition parties viewed it as premature to remove Msunduzi from administration given ongoing governance challenges, Mtolo defended the provincial government’s decision.

Today I interacted with about 600 residents and none of them had serious issues with service delivery. As I walked around, I could see that the streets were clean and most of the roads were tarred.

“While some residents complained about water supply issues, they did say that they do receive water from tankers when there are water outages, which are mainly due to burst pipes.”

“So, why should the Msunduzi Municipality continue to be under administration? The truth is that there has been significant improvement,” he said.

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While Pietermaritzburg has been an ANC stronghold, the party faces a challenge from the newly formed uMkhonto we Sizwe Party (MKP).

However, Mokonyane, who was on a door-to-door campaign in Dambuza township, said the ruling party was “less concerned about the MK Party”.

“As the ANC, we are well prepared. We are aware that all the political parties have ganged up to contest the ANC. As the ANC, we are not panicking at all about opposition parties. Our people are ready to defend the ANC come May 29,” she said.

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Regarding the problem of unemployment, which has been cited as a reason for potential loss of ANC votes, Mokonyane said the ruling party has been interacting with those who are out of work.

We are telling them that the ANC has a concrete plan to create jobs and that we are implementing the plan as we speak. Our people have full confidence in the ANC and know very well that we will keep our promise.

“In previous elections, we promised people houses and we delivered, we promised people free education and we delivered, we promised our people many things and we delivered.

“So, there is no reason for them to doubt us when we say that we will deliver the much-needed jobs,” she said.