Pressure on ANC in Bay to shape up

WITH ANC membership numbers in Nelson Mandela Bay plummeting to below 5000, the party’s national bosses have given regional and branch leaders two weeks to come up with a damage-control plan as it begins to confront the real possibility of losing power in 2016.

The ANC regional working committee, mayoral committee, and MPs like chief whip Stone Sizani and Lulu Johnson met yesterday to try to come up with a feasible strategy to turn the region around.

In an interview after the meeting with the mayoral committee, ANC regional secretary Zandisile Qupe confirmed the party’s national working committee (NWC) had given branch leaders two weeks to recruit more members and improve service delivery and the ANC’s image.

This came after the NWC warned municipal bosses and ANC regional and branch leaders at the Uitenhage Town Hall on Sunday not to take residents for granted, but to shape up and deliver.

Branch and regional leaders were instructed to revive the party’s branches and recruit new members. - Mkhululi Ndamase