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Roundup: S. African president urges voters to vote for ruling party to remember Mandela

Xinhua, July 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday urged voters to vote for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the upcoming local government elections in honour of Nelson Mandela.

"The ANC today remains highly committed to these revolutionary ideals espoused by the Mandela generation and will take advantage of the elections period to mobilise South Africans from all walks of life behind the vision of Madiba (Mandela)," Zuma said in the party's regular newsletter.

As the local government elections, scheduled for August 3, are drawing near, the ANC's campaign trail is in full swing.

"Our movement will participate in these elections with the sole intention to win all municipalities in order to further our progressive agenda to transform South Africa and improve our people's lives in line with the vision of our father, Tata Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela," Zuma said.

The ANC will contest elections in all the wards across the length and breadth of the country in order to retain the municipalities it currently governs and also to win the few currently in the hands of other parties, according to Zuma, who is also ANC President.

The ANC is facing fierce competition from opposition parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which have vowed to take over major municipalities like Johannesburg, Pretoria and Nelson Mandela Bay from the ANC.

South Africans, Zuma said, must be wary of entrusting this important sphere of government in the hands of inexperienced parties and career politicians who will still have to spend time learning how government works rather than focusing solely on the task at hand; thus undermining the principle of an uninterrupted and smooth transition from one administration to another.

"It is common knowledge that the ANC is the only organization with a proven track record in all spheres of government. We will use this unmatched experience of the ANC to deepen intergovernmental relations and ensure that there is absolute cohesion among all the three spheres of government," Zuma noted.

The ANC is the most effective instrument at its disposal to bring about social change, political freedom as well as total emancipation from economic bondage, said Zuma.

"Working together with our communities, the ANC will use municipalities as a critical site of power and layer of government to accelerate the advance towards the achievement of all the ideals for which Madiba was prepared to die," Zuma said. Endit