The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay said it had never taken a position or a resolution on a vote of no confidence in executive mayor, Athol Trollip.
The party issued a lengthy statement Thursday, detailing a myriad of grievances it has with the DA-led coalition and in particular, the way it feels Council is dealing with poorer communities.
However, the ANC in the Metro said it would continue to raise matters through "sober debate" as the party works on a 2021 comeback plan.
The ruling party has been back-tracking on an earlier statement by the party's Gift Nqondi, who told Algoa FM News as well as ENCA that they would be bringing a motion of no confidence in Trollip.
However, ANC regional task team Regional Coordinator, Beza Ntshona, said they had never taken such a position.
"We never at any stage had discussions around issues related to the vote of no confidence. We were involved in coalitions prior the establishment of the metro when we could not win the hearts and minds of the political parties that were engaging, we agreed that let's go back and develop a plan interms of how can we make our voice heard in council" he said.
Ntshona also stated that the party would be seeking a mandate from it's constituency on a way forward on it's issues with the DA-led coalition.
"We have realised that the DA coalition is ignoring the plight of the poor and continue to display arrogance and bullying tactics rather than focusing on core business of governance as that is informed by the arrogance and negative response from Executive Mayor Athol Trollip. We have since agreed that will seek mandate from our Constituency on the way forward again through extensive consultation with all role players. We remain unhappy and concerned" Ntshona said.
Ntshona said the ANC would be meeting soon where they will also discuss the statement issued by Ngqondi.
"We are making a follow up regarding the statements issued by individuals as the organisation, so much that in our next meeting will be discussing that. The official position of ANC is communicated by me on any matter, we heard that there were those particular issues that made contradictions in the eyes of the public. We are internally dealing with that and when necessary we will take action against those individuals" he said.
Ntshona told Algoa FM News that might have among its members some people who were ill disciplined and anarchist, but he said the ANC remains a true non-racial, non-sexist and democratic organisation.
He said while the party did not achieve its election mission, it does not suggest that the ANC had failed.
Ntshona said there's still work to be done.
"It is not an anarchist organisation but the voice of the voiceless the poor. Yes we agree that we have not accomplished our mission as many people are jobless, poverty levels are high, crime is high, some have no houses , water and electricity . This does not suggest we have failed but there is still work to be done. As architects of clean governance we rooted out corruption in the municipality and we will continue to do so and action was taken on such without fear or favour" he said.
Meanwhile, the ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay will go ahead with its regional conference at the end of this month.
The conference, which take place from the 24th to the 26th of February, was postponed last year due to the delays in membership audit processes done at the branch level.
Ntshona, said this won't be a conference "for the sake of electing leaders" but to develop a strategic plan for the 2021 elections.
"We want to develop a strategic plan towards the next coming elections, to make a critical analysis and assessment, what has gone wrong. How do we restore their confidence in the African National Congress."
"We have already issued discussions documents that are going to guide us, we also identified key issues that are policy matters that we need to treat ...so for us this is a groundbreaking conference of the ANC, it's not going to be an ordinary conference, even the leadership that we are going to elect should be a leadership that will restore confidence and be able to make sure that 2021 the ANC wins back the metro" he said.
