Lungani Zungu
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has proposed that all party mayors and councillors must have post-matric qualifications.
He presented his proposal to the party’s national executive committee during its meeting earlier this month.
This is in line with his drive to revive the ailing ANC-led government, and rid it of incompetent deployees.
The proposal could be set in motion as soon as the next local government elections.
When the ANC became the ruling party in 1994, its cadre deployment system did not require candidates to have any qualifications.
Ramaphosa also proposed that mayoral candidates be short-listed, and go through a rigorous selection process, before being deployed to run municipalities.
But his proposal has been met with fierce opposition.
An ANC councillor in eThekwini, who doesn’t have any post-matric qualifications, is against the proposal.
“This proposal will not pass,” said the councillor.
“If it passed, then many ANC councillors and mayors would have to leave their jobs. The ANC members will not allow that.”
Another councillor in Pietermaritzburg said the president was “daydreaming”.
“We are the members of the ANC and we will not allow such a proposal to pass,” said the councillor.
Former president Jacob Zuma, the suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, were among the people who rose to powerful positions with no qualifications.
When he tabled his proposal, Ramaphosa attributed the failures of the ANC-led government to lack of skills in ANC deployees in government.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said this was a proposal, and ANC members would debate it before any further steps were taken.
