Zuma upbeat

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is confident the ANC will win back Cape Town in the local government elections on May 18 - provided there is unity in the party

Zuma launched the ANC's election campaign at the Dal Josafat Stadium in Paarl yesterday.

Speaking at a rally of more than 15,000 people, Zuma said the ANC factions in the province must put their differences aside.

"We must unite to defeat the Democratic Alliance in Western Cape," Zuma said.

"We must take back the Cape Town Metro as a first step in taking back Western Cape in the next national election. I am confident we are ready to do so. The ANC is bigger than people think."

Zuma said the ANC remained committed to delivering water, electricity, sanitation and to "formalising" informal settlements.

Meanwhile, the ANC's top six officials will today visit Cape Town to hold talks with the province's former leaders Mcebisi Skwatsha, Lynne Brown and Max Ozinsky.

The three were nominated for leadership positions at an elective conference last month, but pulled out of the race after the ANC Youth League which has no democratically-elected provincial leadership structure was allowed to send voting delegates to the congress.

The ANCYL had earlier indicated that their delegates would vote for the opposing slate, led by Deputy International Relations Minister Marius Fransman and the ANCYL's Songezo Mjongile. About 200 Skwatsha supporters protested about this outside the conference, but the conference agreed that since the ANCYL still had branches, it should be allowed to vote.

But the ANC's top six are likely to hold out an olive branch to the Skwatsha grouping today in a bid to get their supporters to back the ANC campaign for local government elections.

The DA will this morning announce their mayoral candidate for Cape Town, and is widely expected to be Patricia de Lille.

Cosatu leader Tony Ehrenreich is in the running to be the ANC's mayoral candidate, but the ANC has not yet said when they will make the official announcement.