The new Nelson Mandela Bay party, Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM), has been given the greenlight to contest the 2021 local government election.
Member of the AIM interim leadership, businessman Sello Headbush, said the IEC had formally registered the party, which was an important milestone for the newly formed residents’ movement which seeks to end maladministration in the metro and to improve service delivery.
“This means we now have lift-off in our mission to take our metro back from the current crop of inept politicians who have done nothing but cause mayhem at City Hall over the past four years.
“It’s time for those councillors who have presided over a gridlocked administration, a political circus and general chaos as evidenced by the so-called kidnapping of the council speaker, to move on,” Headbush said.
NMB speaker Buyelwa Mafaya was ushered out of the council chambers earlier this month by her bodyguard along with three former guards, before the vote for the metro’s new mayor, Nqaba Bhanga.
AIM, which is led by well-known former anti-apartheid activist and businessman Mkhuseli “Khusta” Jack, was founded in October when its name was approved and an interim executive elected. Jack was elected as the “volunteer-in-chief”.
Headbush said AIM has been established by a group of concerned residents who would focus their efforts on turning the tide against the mismanagement, corruption, self-serving agendas, incompetence and political wrangling which resulted in the metro being dysfunctional for more than a decade.
“The interim leadership of AIM comprises individuals from all walks of life who are driven by the common purpose of putting the best interests of the metro’s citizens first.
“Aligned to this and very importantly, we believe that the new leadership, which must take over the affairs of the metro, must operate in line with high values.
“Integrity should form the foundation of decision making at all levels,” Headbush said.
He said the next step for AIM was to unveil its interim leadership at a public event next month and present its strategic plan to take Nelson Mandela Bay “back to its former glory as a proud coastal city which works for its residents and contributes to national economic development”.
Headbush said their application took only two months to be approved and that was because they had learnt from mistakes made by other newly formed parties before them.
“We tried to make sure that we did not make the same mistakes,” Headbush said.
IEC regional supervisor Crosby Bacela confirmed the electoral commission had approved the application by AIM as a political party.
HeraldLIVE