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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in North West will not involve itself in factional horse-trading in municipal councils affected by the ANC’s Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) recall of Mayors, Speakers and Chief Whips (Troikas) of the Mahikeng, Ditsobotla, Macquassi Hills and Matlosana Local Municipalities and the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality.

We have written to all DA Municipal Caucuses not to extend any support to any ANC candidate to replace an ANC office bearer. That is because the root of the rot in North West is the ANC in its entirety.

The DA further calls on all opposition political parties in North West to support our initiative not to give credence to this futile exercise of replacing one ANC cadre with another. The time has come to let the ANC deal with the mess the ANC has created.

The ANC had 26 years to deliver good governance and quality basic service delivery in North West and for 26 years they have failed miserably. Instead of improving the lives of people, the ANC in North West has presided over the collapse of governance and the cessation of service delivery while corruption and looting has transformed the province into a wasteland of deprivation, desperation and despair.

Replacing one ANC cadre with another will not bring any positive change to the lived realities of the people in the North West.

When The ANC’s IPC Coordinator, Hlomane Chauke, announced the decision on the recall, the DA warned that this move is nothing but factional battles playing out at the expense of the people of North West.

We also warned that the ANC North West IPC’s decision will be rejected by branches and factions and that affected cadres in executive positions will challenge the decision in court.

A week after the IPC announcement, we have seen former North West COSAS President, Wesley Kgang, ANCWL Branch Chairperson, Mildred Gaza, in Matlosana, and the ANC Regional Secretary of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Guolatlhe Kgabo, all reject the recall and are considering legal challenges in the High Court.

The DA is on record stating that the recall will fail because a similar recall just before the 2019 general elections failed miserably, and the battle lines unfolding now were exactly the same as in 2019.

The ANC is trying to realign preferred factions to positions of power and access to resources to continue the looting and theft of taxpayer money, which is ultimately the goal of this recall. All of this is being done under the pretence of restoring good governance and service delivery in North West Municipalities.

The ANC in North West exists purely for its own selfish interests. It is time that people of North West reject and abandon the ANC at the ballot box next year.

The North West has tremendous potential to become a fully functional and prosperous province, where services are delivered, where municipalities put the interests of residents first, where every cent is spent on improving people’s lives, where local economies grow and flourish and jobs are created.

The only way to rebuild the North West, is for voters to unite behind the DA so that we can begin a programme of good, transparent, responsive governance and service delivery in the interest of the people.

Issued by The DA