ANC shuns 'municipal politics'

Cape Town - In a move that is set to heighten existing tensions in the tri-partite alliance, the ANC lekgotla has endorsed a controversial proposal to ban municipal workers from holding leadership positions in political parties.

"The lekgotla also agreed with the national executive committee's (NEC) January 8 articulation that it is not in the interest of service delivery for those who hold political office in organisations to also serve as administrators in local government," read the statement released after the ANC's weekend lekgotla.

Zuma first mooted the idea of de-politicising the municipal workforce in a statement earlier this month (January 8).

In response, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) objected and said the "concerted effort" to de-politicise and de-unionise the public service would be "disastrous for the country and the working class". The union undertook to get an apology from the ANC leadership.

Samwu was not available to comment after the lekgotla decision was made public on Monday.

Aside from the plan to outlaw municipal employees from holding political office, the lekgotla agreed on a 10-point plan turnaround strategy to make municipalities "vehicles of effective service delivery".

While the ruling party has not released details of the turnaround plan, it will be discussed at the upcoming cabinet lekgotla (a meeting called by government to discuss strategy planning) later this month.

The cabinet lekgotla will inform what Zuma says in his state of the nation speech when he opens parliament in February.

- Fin24.com