Durban — In its effort to regain lost ground, the ANC has called on its deployees to prioritise service delivery and reporting back to communities, while forming partnerships with business chambers that would benefit the people.

The sentiments were shared by the party’s provincial chairperson Siboniso Duma on Sunday at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall, where members had gathered for the Organisational Political Lecture in the Moses Mabhida Region, as part of the organisation’s programme of action aimed at rebuilding and uniting their branches. Duma said “unity in action” would ensure the stability of the ANC and the alliance.

He said the party had a responsibility to make local government “work better” and bring the people to the centre of their programmes for service delivery.

“The monitoring of the performance of our deployees in our municipalities and other spheres of government is being strengthened.

“All mayors, speakers, chief whips and councillors need to act in unity in order to fulfil the mandate given to all of us as elected public representatives.”

He emphasised the need for council leadership to take joint ownership of the development of their respective municipalities.

He further commended the mayors, speakers, chief whips and all councillors that have held regular meetings with their communities.

The lack of regular feedback or consultations gave community members the impression that the councillors were betraying the trust placed upon them, he said.

In their engagement with President Cyril Ramaphosa, he committed to the acceleration of all programmes of socio-economic development in the province.

ANC KwaZulu-Natal Chairperson Siboniso Duma party members gathered for the Organisational Political Lecture in the Moses Mabhida Region, yesterday at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall. | Supplied

Duma called on ANC-led government departments and ANC-led municipalities to always be proactive and take advantage of national and provincial government programmes in promoting certain sectors of the economy, including the rollout of infrastructure.

He said the party was committed to having decent road infrastructure for daily transport to work and access to economic centres.

Duma emphasised the need for all deployees of the ANC to focus on the creation of jobs and growing the economy. He warned that social cohesion was threatened by inequalities that were a result of a lack of access to economic opportunities.

The party ought to monitor their progress to an extent where they were able to succeed in growing a shared economy with broader participation in a diversified economy at a local level, Duma said.

“We are saying the leadership of municipalities must strengthen relations with chambers (of business) and form partnerships with captains of industry in order to unlock economic opportunities for the benefit of our people,” he said.

Duma said that the ANC in the Moses Mabhida Region has the immediate task of reviving all branches not in good standing, and for branches to go out to mobilise support for the party.

This comes after the party took a sharp decline in support during the May 2024 national elections.

Political Analyst Bheki Mngomezulu said the party’s renewal strategy was a political rhetoric, adding that in principle it was a good idea, however, it was not possible if not followed by actions.

“The first step to this process is for them to question what has gone wrong. Among other things was sectional politics, which has killed the organisation at all levels. Secondly, people come with constructive criticism, do they embrace those criticisms or do they dismiss them?” he Mngomezulu said.

He said the party needed to come to terms with the statements articulated by its senior leadership in KwaZulu-Natal before and during the elections.

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