Save ANC by dissolving Nelson Mandela Bay council — MKVA chair

The ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association (MKVA) in Nelson Mandela Bay has thrown its weight behind calls for the metro to be placed under administration and the council dissolved.

This was the only way to save the city’s collapsed administration, o MKVA chair of the western region, Phakamile Ximiya, said in a statement on Tuesday.

This comes amid mounting calls from some within the Bay’s ANC for Bhisho to intervene in the city.

Last week, Cogta MEC Xolile Nqatha threatened to invoke section 139 (1) (c) of the constitution, dissolve the council and appoint an administrator to run the municipality.

Should he proceed, a fresh election for a new council would have to take place within three months.

In a letter sent last week Tuesday, Nqatha gave acting mayor Thsonono Buyeye seven days to explain why he should not place the city under administration.

Nqatha wants the council to elect a new mayor and replace Mvuleni Mapu as acting city manager, or he would appeal to the Eastern Cape government to support his proposal that the council be dissolved.

Ximiya, meanwhile, believes placing the municipality under administration is the only way for the ANC to redeem itself.

“What we need now is an administrator who can focus on reviving the administration of the institution and then politicians can be brought in afterwards.

“As things stand now, get rid of the politicians; they are poison and not helping anybody.

“The RTT [regional task team] must be seen focusing on rebuilding the institution and clearly distancing itself from shenanigans to steal.

“We believe we have been blundering by involving ourselves in [ANC councillor Andile] Lungisa’s and this so- called black caucus agenda, which can put nothing on the table that has benefited people on the ground other than bad publicity for the ANC,” Ximiya said.

He said the ANC should never have associated itself with the so-called Black Caucus — which is made up of the city’s current coalition government comprising the UDM, United Front, ANC, AIC and Patriotic Alliance.

They govern, at times, with the support of the EFF.

“It has been a matter of serious embarrassment, and continues to be an embarrassment, our involvement as an organisation in this coalition,” Ximiya said.

“It was wrong to drag our beautiful name to anything than will sound [like] dividing our society on racial lines.

“Our project is about all races in one pot.

“We are a non-racial organisation.

“The Freedom Charter declares for all to know that SA belongs to all those who live in it, black and white.

“Any programmes of the ANC must be focused and communicate the agenda of unity and finding solutions to the skewed distribution of resources without making others feel they are not part of that project.

“Let us not confuse our masses and speak with double tongues.

“We have embraced all races in our organisation.

“This has to be reflected in the structures we appoint and elect,” he said.

“The coalition must fall and it’s time to fix the administration at City Hall,” he said.

Speaking on claims that some councillors were trying to influence which areas received Covid-19 relief resources, Ximiya said it was criminal to deny any citizen resources because they lived in a ward that was not under the stewardship of the ANC.

“Government resources belong to the people and no-one must be discriminated because he voted DA, EFF, UDM or whatever party of their choice.

“We fought for a democracy here.

“We did not fight for a dictatorship or bullying of others when they make their political choices.

“Rise above petty and chauvinistic politics.

“That is not ANC.

“You are misrepresenting and embarrassing the ANC when you deny others what they deserve,” he said.

-HeraldLIVE