The African National Congress (ANC) – should it retain control of all of South Africa’s six metropolitan areas in the upcoming local government elections – expects to inaugurate at least three female executive mayors, in keeping with its commitment to a gender parity of 50% at local government level, secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe told members of the press yesterday.

This despite indications that the party’s official opposition intends to specifically contest these areas.

When asked whether the 50% extended to metro mayors, Motlanthe responded: “Fifty per cent is the minimum…maybe we end up with five or six”.

At the moment, the only female metro mayor is Cape Town’s Nomaindia Mfeketo.

The party’s mayoral candidate list for the metropolitan areas is the responsiblility of the National Deployment Committee, and would be released “within a week or so” Motlanthe said.

His comments come less than a week after a speech by Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, in which he tackles service-delivery and corruption issues in Johannesburg, Tshwane, Durban, Bloemfontein and Cape Town, in particular, and the release of campaign announcements apparently targeting voters in the metro areas.

Motlanthe added that, with the terms of serving mayors about to end, no one would be losing their jobs because of the new policy.

In a statement on the conclusion of the party's recently-finalised local government candidate-list process, Motlanthe emphasised that the party expected to meet its target of ensuring that half of ANC public representatives in local government are women.

“This commitment has meant that some male sitting councillors were not returned as candidates.” As a result, Motlanthe said, over 50% of ANC councillors are first-time candidates.

He said that the party had tried to find a balance between ensuring that councillors were able to gain experience through continuity of tenure, and promoting gender equality.

Responding to a question on how the party intended to address mounting nationwide gripes over service delivery, Motlante said that the democratic and broad-based way in which candidates are elected would automatically ensure that only councillors who work closely with their communities and have worked to improve standards would be re-elected.

“But it is also important to understand that local government is only one of several factors in improving service delivery,” he cautioned.

Yesterday was the final opportunity for parties to submit candidate lists for the local government elections, which are scheduled for March 1, to the Independent Electoral Authority (IEC).

Meanwhile, police were yesterday deployed to the North West Provincial Legislature to protect ANC members who were taken hostage at the Vryburg Municipal offices.

They were in the area to finalise the provincial candidates list for that region.

According to SABC news, an angry crowd who demanded to see the ANC's candidates list for the local government elections had to be dispersed with police teargas and rubber bullets.

This morning, the ANC delegation which travelled to Taung to submit the party's final list to the IEC, were again prevented from doing so by angry residents who surrounded the IEC offices.

The SABC reported that the crowd was demanding that a representative from the ANC headquarters address them on 'irregularities' that they claim appear on the list.

Motlanthe yesterday affirmed that the party had followed democratic procedures in the districts, but said that the problems had arisen following a process of appeals and objections to candidates on the lists.

“The people want to see whether the changes have in any way undermined our democratic processes,” he said.