Bongani Mani sworn in as ANC councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay

ANC member Bongani Mani was sworn in as a councillor in Nelson Mandela Bay on Wednesday.

Mani filled the vacancy left by former councillor Mike Kwenaite in December, who died in December from Covid-19 complications.

ANC regional task team co-ordinator Luyolo Nqakula said in a statement that the vacancy had to be filled, describing Mani as a “young, earnest cadre of the movement”.

Before Mani’s appointment by the ANC, the party had two vacancies, after the death of Kwenaite and ward 17 councillor Ncediso Captain in November.

With a crucial council meeting scheduled for Thursday to elect a mayor in the Bay, Mani’s appointment brings the number of ANC councillors to 49.

The DA-led coalition has 63 seats.

Nqakulsa said Mani, 29, was a breath of fresh air in the ANC caucus.

“He has led within the organisation’s youth structures at various levels.

In 2010, he became the president of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) after leading the organisation at provincial and regional levels as a high school scholar.

“He is currently the ANC Youth League RTT co-ordinator in the region, after also occupying the position in 2014 and being a regional executive committee member of the ANCYL in 2017,” Nqakula said.

Mani previously was part of the ANC council political and administrative support staff, and was deployed in the office of the political head of infrastructure and engineering since the beginning of 2020.

“His energy, radicalism, political experience and discipline continues to shape him and inspire those around him to want to fight for the needs of young people, renew the movement and rebuild general voter confidence in the region.

“The ANC in Nelson Mandela metro has confidence that the newly sworn-in councillor will serve the organisation well in council and play his part to restore the institution in line with the ANC’s vision for 2021 local government elections,” Nqakula said.

Mani said he was humbled by the faith the ANC had shown in him.

“I trust we’ll work well with councillors, both young and old to restore the dignity of the ANC and bring about a level of stability in the metro,” he said.

On some of the key issues he wanted to tackle, Mani said he was only 20 minutes into his new role but coming from the ANCYL, he would check how far the implementation of the youth policy was.

“This was adopted donkey years ago to speed up development because young people are in a serious backfoot, both socially and economically.

“Those are the issues I will champion and in the broader scheme of things, gender-based violence, opportunities and the general state of unemployment,” Mani said.

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