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Pretoria - ANC President Jacob Zuma says the Tshwane municipality will not be wrestled away from the organisation in the upcoming elections despite some of the challenges the party has faced there.
"Pretoria is safe in the hands of the ANC, no doubt about that," Zuma said after conducting door-to-door visits in Hammanskraal and Winterveldt.
"I'm going away with an understanding of what Tshwane is about. Don't worry, this place belongs to the African National Congress."
Zuma and other senior members of the party were in Tshwane on Tuesday campaigning ahead of the local government elections. He went door-to-door and addressed crowds in Hammanskraal, Winterveldt and Atteridgeville.
He said the people he interacted with expressed themselves about a lot of things and where they wanted the government to improve.
"I must also... acknowledge the fact that there has been delivery but there are still other challenges. In Tshwane, there are plans and they include a budget to deal with many of those," he said.
Call for respect
Speaking on the challenges that the party is facing, particularly in Tshwane, where there was unrest over the nomination of Thoko Didiza as a mayoral candidate for the upcoming elections, Zuma said this was expected in a democratic organisation. He indicated, however, that how the issues were dealt with determined the character of an organisation.
"The test is whether the organisation is able to deal with those challenges. That is a test for democracy and that is what we are doing. We said to the people that where there is a complaint, even after August 3, the ANC will address those. We have always done so," said Zuma.
He said their ability to deal with internal matters distinguished the party from the rest.
Didiza, speaking on the violence that erupted when she was nominated, called on members to respect the processes and decisions of the party.
"What we have said as ANC is that once the organisation has taken a decision, all of us as cadres should... do what is necessary for all of us. I'm here as a cadre of the ANC. I live in Tshwane and I have no fears that we will be able to win Tshwane as the ANC," she said.
- Find everything you need to know about the 2016 Local Government Elections at our News24 Elections site, including the latest news and detailed, interactive maps for how South Africa has voted over the past 3 elections, or download the app for iOS and Android.
