‘Next week we are going to remove you’: Mbalula hits back at disgruntled councillors
· Citizen
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the party will remove councillors who have decided to stand as independent candidates in the upcoming local government elections.
He was speaking in Sun City on Thursday at an event marking the 82nd anniversary of the formation of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).
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“Some of our councillors are misbehaving – they have decided to become independents. I have seen them, but they are our councillors; they are left with a month, so next week we are going to remove you, so you will not get your monthly salary for the last time,” he said.
‘You cannot have 100 councillors’
Mbalula wished all those who made the list well and told the youth league he expects all ANC members to be disciplined because not everyone can occupy a public position.
“You must understand that every cycle that comes, one person will be a councillor; you cannot have 100 councillors; one person will be a mayor,” he said.
List process
He said, unlike other parties, the ANC had meticulously selected its councillor candidates.
“We have produced people of exceptional calibre who are ANC councillors, and some of them, you are going to see them; they are praised by communities by virtue of the work that they do.
“I can assure you, in the ANC list, we have got many young people,” he said.
Mayoral candidates
Mbalula said the ANC will not be pressured into announcing its final choice for mayoral candidates in different municipalities. Currently, the party has announced people nominated to become mayoral candidates.
“We will do it at our own time, at the time of the African National Congress, and that is what you must understand,” he said.
Mbalula told the youth league to campaign for the ANC in the lead-up to the elections on 4 November.
“You need to shape up; we are in an election campaign, and this means war; this means war. We must be in the election campaign, and we must be in that mood.
“We are not in this election campaign to accompany other people; we are here to win and to win decisively – like we did in the last election,” he said.
IEC court challenge
He said the ANC will not back down from its court challenge against the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC). The party wants the commission to give it an opportunity to “complete” its list submission of councillor candidates despite the deadline having lapsed.
“You must never think that we are in court because we are asking the IEC or the court to make us favours, we are not. We are arguing a point in law – in relation to whether we submitted and what does that mean in relation to uploading people into the system of the IEC…therefore we are not asking the court to give us what is not due to us,” he said.
Mbalula denied that the ANC had missed the deadline to submit its candidates.