ANC summons councillors to talks

An NEC source said the party was not worried about MK party sleeper agents in their ranks

- Lunga Mzangwe

In an unprecedented show of force, the ANC has summoned all its councillors nationwide to Johannesburg on Monday to ensure they meet the party's expectations of them going into next year's crucial local government polls.

The party, facing service delivery problems where it governs, and aware of the threat posed by parties such as that of its former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), intends to rally everyone behind plans to ensure it does not face a bloodbath similar to what it experienced in last year's general elections.

The "roll call", to be held in Soweto on Monday, comes after the party's special two-day national executive committee (NEC) meeting which begins on Saturday in Ekurhuleni.

The NEC meeting will look at the challenges the party faces and map the way forward in a bid to accelerate service delivery and avoid defeat in next year's polls.

Zuma's MK party took a significant chunk of votes from the ANC, resulting in the party going below the 50% plus one needed to govern outright.

Some councillors and senior party leaders jumped ship from the ANC to join MK, resulting in a number of voters voting for the splinter party.

In June, two senior MK party members, one in KwaZulu-Natal and another in Gauteng, told the Mail & Guardian the party had councillors who were sleeper agents in the ANC, saying there would be a mass exodus from the ANC to MK.

The source in KZN said they had told ANC councillors not to cross the floor before the council was dissolved, as they would not get salaries from the MK party.

"We told them if they move now, they will not get the same salary they are getting from the ANC. So, we said to them they must hold on for now.

"You will see what you have never seen before, and we are going to win eThekwini outright."