We'll take Cape back, vows ANC

As Western Cape premier Helen Zille announced the inclusion of ID leader Patricia de Lille in her cabinet this week, the ANC said it was working hard to reverse the string of losses it had suffered at the hands of the DA in the province since 2006.

The ruling party has intensified its campaign to win back the Western Cape, deploying more than half of its national executive committee members to do work in the province's six regions.

This is in a bid to stem a tide which has seen it losing the City of Cape Town, the province and key municipal wards to the DA.

Mandla Dlamini, a spokesman of the task team that runs the ANC in the province, said the 44 NEC members were expected to spend at least four days a month in those regions.

The task team is racing to get 70% of its 348 branches ready for a provincial elective conference in December. All the regions have held regional general councils in preparation for the provincial general council to be held on Saturday in the Overberg region.

Dlamini said the ANC was ready to fight back.

"People think the ANC in the province is dead, but the finger is moving, life is coming back into this person," he said.

There was drama in the province's government this week when Zille axed controversial safety MEC Lennit Max from her cabinet and brought in new coalition partner De Lille - who is now the province's social development MEC.

Max, who has had sexual harassment allegations levelled against him, will become an ordinary MP. Zille has negotiated a direct swap with DA MP Albert Fritz, who will take over the community safety portfolio in the province, pending approval by the party's federal executive committee.

On Friday Zille said of her decision to axe Max: "Never once in a reshuffle that I've ever seen anywhere has any premier or president ever given reasons for it. They take a decision based on their judgment as they are required to do in law ... that decision is based on my judgment."

Ivan Meyer, who was social development MEC, will move to the arts, culture and sports portfolio with added international relations responsibilities.

The portfolio had been held by ID member Saki Jenner, who now becomes the chairman of a committee in the provincial legislature.

De Lille's sister, Sarah Paulse, moves from the Western Cape provincial legislature to take over De Lille's vacant ID seat in parliament, with Joe McGluwa becoming the ID parliamentary leader.