Local Elections Airing Out The Laundry
The ANC is finding that drawing up electoral lists is harder than expected. Thabo Mbeki has stated that he intends to use these local elections to rid council of corruption and ‘populists’ but he’s going to find that hard to do when local ANC branches submit lists full of the people he is trying to get rid of. I don’t think that the national ANC structure can override to much of the choices of the local ANC wards without straining tensions in the ANC even further. Observe the ruckus going down in KZN where no ANC councillor is prepared to give up their R17 000 a month salary (39 000(!!) if you’re on the executive committee) without a fight.
To me it seems Mbeki has got two choices. He can walk a tightrope trying to find balance within the ANC and make as many people (including the voting public) as happy as possible. Or he can go in with a hammer and smash everything to the ground and try and rebuild it again. Which is what I suspect may happen. It’s been long suspected that Mbeki is trying to turn the ANC into a modern ‘European’ style political party and these local elections might just be the opportunity for him to try to do that. But there’s going to be a lot of ganshing of teeth from within the ANC along the way.
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