Political parties vying for the favour of the African Independent Congress (AIC) in Nelson Mandela Bay will each get an opportunity to state their case this week.
AIC secretary-general Mahlubi Jafta will be in the Bay on Thursday to listen to all the political parties that have expressed an interest in wanting to partner with his party.
“Thursday, I’m coming down to speak to the parties represented in the metro to hear what is actually happening this side, what they want and expect from the AIC and what role the AIC can play in the metro,” he said.
Jafta said there had been no discussions with the DA about the AIC joining the governing coalition in Nelson Mandela Bay, but he was open to approaches from all the parties.
“We want to build something that benefits communities because municipalities exist to serve the people, not political parties.
“We’ll be giving parties this opportunity to tell us what they want and how they want the municipality to be run.”
Jafta said the AIC had invited all interested parties through its sole councillor in the metro, Thsonono Buyeye.
The AIC recently drew attention when Buyeye supported the Bay’s R12bn 2018/19 budget despite all other opposition parties either abstaining from voting or walking out of the council chambers.
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The vote was passed with Buyeye’s help.
This, AIC president Mandla Galo said, was done to teach the ANC a lesson as the party had failed to confirm in writing that it would support the AIC’s proposal to reincorporate Matatiele into KwaZulu-Natal.
Galo said at the time that he wanted the ANC to provide concrete reasons why it did not support the AIC’s proposed bill to amend the constitution to have Matatiele reincorporated.
The two parties were meant to have met in June but the meeting had not taken place.
Jafta said he had written several letters to the ANC, requesting that the parties sit down, but he had not received a response.
“The ball is in their court now. We’ll continue to put pressure but there’s nothing we can do,” he said.
“In our earlier correspondence, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said his intentions were to call the premiers of [both] KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape as well as cooperative governance minister Zweli Mkhize to see where the matter of Matatiele was,” he said.