PORT ELIZABETH - DANNY JORDAAN ANNOUNCED AS LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION FOR THE ANC IN PE

Port Elizabeth - The African National Congress (ANC) in Nelson Mandela Bay announced its leader as Danny Jordaan on Wednesday although Jordaan was once again missing in action.

At a press conference on Wednesday at the party's regional headquarters, ANC Regional Task Team (RTT) Convener, Vuyani Limba said that Jordaan had been sent “somewhere” by the party and details around this could not be revealed to the media.

The party also announced its deputy-leader as Biks Ndoni, who was Jordaan's Deputy Mayor before the ANC lost the Nelson Mandela Bay to the Democratic Alliance-led multi party coalition.

The ANC's whip in Council was announced as Litho Suka.

The ANC's RTT Co-Ordinator, Beza Nthsona said that the party admitted it was now the official opposition in council and was gearing itself up to assume responsibility. “The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay and its structures met last week to assess the outcome of the 2016 Local Government Elections and to map a way forward. The ANC structures made it clear that people still love the ANC and have confidence in our glorious movement,” said Ntshona.

He said for the party the first order of business was to start now in gearing up for the next local government election where he was confident the ANC would take back the metro. Ntshona blamed the party's dwindling support on a “bad voter turnout” and said it was the norm in the history of local government elections.

“We developed a plan and that plan will be tested at national elections,” he said. The ANC slammed the newly announced mayoral committee team under Executive Mayor Athol Trollip as a team that was “male dominated, white in colour and ignoring the plight of women with only two women representing the committee”.

It also emerged that the ANC's intended court battle to contest the allocation of a PR seat in council has been swept under the carpet. “The NEC has instructed us to withdraw the case and indeed the case has been withdrawn,” said Limba.

Ntshona reiterated that the ANC raised issues with the IEC two days before seeing the results from the election. “We wanted to express this so there could be clarity around the matter. We identified a number of areas where we engaged with the IEC through our representatives who represented the ANC at IEC level.

We indicated there was separate issues we were dealing with and comrade Bona was instructed to open a case regarding the issue of the ballot boxes.

With interacting with structures at a national level they agreed we [needed] to put this matter aside as an organisation,” said Ntshona.

VIA - iol.co.za