Kimberley<\/p>\n
The African National Congress (ANC) in the Northern Cape\u00a0 convened a two-day Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) Lekgotla on 13 and 14 February 2026, under the theme\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>THE YEAR OF DECISIVE ACTION TO FIX LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TRANSFORM THE ECONOMY\u201c.<\/strong>\u00a0The Lekgotla was attended by ANC regional leadership from Pixley Ka Seme, John Taolo Gaetsewe, ZF Mgcawu, Namakwa and Frances Baard regions, as well as leaders from alliance partners, progressive formations, ANC Leagues, and focal comrades in the municipal space.<\/p>\n The Lekgotla convened in the wake of the ANC January 8th Statement and the National Executive Committee (NEC) Lekgotla, which deliberated on the Northern Cape\u2019s strategic approach towards the 2026 Local Government Elections.<\/p>\n Delivering the keynote address, Dr Zamani Saul, the ANC Provincial Chairperson, underscored the urgent need to pursue the organisation\u2019s six pillars for accelerated service delivery, community engagement and infrastructure development. Dr Saul emphasised that the fixation on fixing local government represents a fundamental shift from planning to execution, and from fragmented intervention to coordinated delivery.<\/p>\n The six pillars\u00a0 include; a<\/strong>cting on core service delivery commitments to citizens, effective and sustainable infrastructure which is fit for purpose, capable local government and institutional capacity, reconnecting with the people and restoring trust, inclusive local economic development, job creation and industrialization and communications and developmental battle of ideas.<\/p>\n Dr Saul further urged all ANC members to close ranks, defend the base, and maintain unity of the entire congress movement in the lead-up to the 2026 Local Government Elections.<\/p>\n According to the ANC Provincial spokesperson, Sandiseni Sithole, the PEC Lekgotla noted several pressing challenges confronting Local Government across the province, including water shortages, electricity supply, revenue collection, billing systems, refuse collection, unfilled vacancies, infrastructure maintenance, land alienation, public participation, and social cohesion.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lekgotla resolved that all critical posts must be filled before the end of April 2026, and affirmed the importance of addressing challenges highlighted by the Human Rights Commission by the same deadline. The ANC Provincial Service Delivery War Room will conduct targeted visits to all distressed municipalities to ensure practical and decisive intervention,\u201d he said\/<\/p>\n Sithole said the PEC Lekgotla reaffirmed the ANC\u2019s fundamental task of building a developmental State in pursuit of the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution. \u201cIt resolved to strengthen oversight of the Provincial Government, with a monitoring and evaluation unit to be established in the Provincial Secretary\u2019s Office. Parliamentary Constituency Offices (PCOs) are to be capacitated to better respond to community needs.\u201d<\/p>\n With regard to organisational renewal, Sithole indicated that the ANC is fully engaged in its renewal process, centred on building strong, programme-oriented branches ahead of the Local Government Elections. \u201cThe conduct of ANC members must remain principled, disciplined and ethical. Political education was identified as a cornerstone of renewal, with the strengthening of ANC Leagues and alliance partners remaining a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the Lekgotla reaffirmed that local government remains central to driving radical socio-economic transformation in addressing poverty, unemployment and inequality. Local Economic Development Units must receive priority attention. \u201cMunicipalities are called upon to formulate practical strategies to enhance local economies and create sustainable jobs. We further resolved that hosting communities must deliberately benefit from the mining value chain across the province, with local labour prioritised in catalytic projects to enable skills transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn advancing the National Democratic Revolution\u2019s vision of a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society, the PEC Lekgotla resolved to place Child and Youth Care Workers and Social Auxiliary Workers in all 503 schools in the Northern Cape to address social ills, including the growing number of teenage pregnancies,\u201d said Sithole.<\/p>\n \u201cDrop-in Centres are to be established in all regions to provide after-school programmes inclusive of nutritional and psychosocial support. The Lekgotla also welcomed the permanent absorption of Community Health Workers and supports efforts to permanently appoint those not yet integrated into the system.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe PEC Lekgotla concluded its two-day session on a positive and rejuvenated spirit, having mapped out concrete targets, approaches and modalities for our response to service delivery challenges. The task at hand is not insurmountable given the reignited dedication of our membership. The measurable outcomes of this Lekgotla will immensely contribute towards creating better services for our communities as we march towards the 2026 Local Government Elections,\u201d Sithole concluded. NEC member, Feb\u00e9 Potgieter and ANC Chairperson Dr. Zamani Saul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kimberley The African National Congress (ANC) in the Northern Cape\u00a0 convened a two-day Provincial Executive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":978,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/976\/revisions\/978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecmessenger.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}