Future endeavours of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, Thabo Manyoni, are still unclear at the moment.
This after Manyoni was not announced as the Metro’s mayoral candidate for the ANC in the upcoming 2016 local elections in August.
The Free State MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Olly Mlamleli, will be replacing Manyoni after she appeared on the party’s mayoral candidate list over the weekend. ANC’s provincial spokesperson, Thabo Meeko, says they will look into Manyoni’s deployment after the elections.
“We can reassure you that comrade Thabo Manyoni is a senior leader of the ANC in the province and he has a good political track record. His participation in the struggle for freedom is impeccable. Clearly and very certainly, the ANC will always need his services and we will never struggle to identify other responsibilities elsewhere for him, but those plans will be unveiled after the elections.”
Meanwhile, the ANC will announce the candidate that will replace Mlamleli after the upcoming elections.
“The ANC deploys and redeploys its members at various times and its members are disciplined. They know that it isn’t about themselves but it’s about the ANC programme. We have explained the requirements or the nature of the process, which entails looking into the issues of gender, the 20% of young people and 50% of women. The process also looks at the issue of continuity, because there is redeployment and deployment all over the show, which will certainly warrant other considerations at certain positions,” he says.
Meeko rubbishes rumours that the ANC chairperson of the Motheo Region, who is also speaker of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, was earmarked as the Metro’s mayoral candidate. He further explains that the process was to firstly identify strategic municipalities that include the Metro’s and announce only the mayoral candidates.
According to him, they will deal with other candidates at local municipalities across the province at a later stage, including candidates for municipal councils, among others mayors, deputy mayors, chief whips and the speakers. – Refilwe Gaeswe
refilwe@centralmediagroup.co.za