Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo
As the debate around the ANC’s step-aside resolution continues, party heavyweight and Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo, who is said to be destined for a top-six position, has made it clear he will support a decision to exclude those affected by the rule from contesting for posts.
Speaking to the Mail & Guardian at the three-year anniversary celebration of the OR Tambo School of Political Education, which he heads, the governing party national executive committee (NEC) member said he would express this at the next meeting when the matter was tabled.
The M&G recently reported that ANC officials were urged to seek legal advice on whether those members charged with serious crimes can contest party elections. This was decided during a national working committee (NWC) meeting on 11 April, after the election of corruption-accused Zandile Gumede as chairperson of the powerful eThekwini region.
Some of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s allies are said to have suggested that the ANC’s image was taking a knock after two powerful provincial leaders — one facing charges of corruption and the other of murder — were elected in the past three weeks.
Newly elected Mpumalanga provincial treasurer Mandla Msibi was forced to immediately step aside from his position, because he is still fighting prosecution on a double murder charge.
“My personal view is that you are elected to serve, you are not elected to step aside. Why should you be elected and then step aside: What is the purpose, really?” Masondo said.
“Logically, I don’t think if you are going to step aside you should serve in the political leadership of the ANC. They shouldn’t contest. They should say, ‘No, I can’t because after this I’m going to be stepping aside, therefore, I won’t be fulfilling my responsibility as a leader’.”
Masando said part of the problem for the ANC was apathy about political education, although branches and regional executive committees were aware that it was essential.
“If someone joined the ANC in 1998 [you are] almost a half a veteran. To be a vet you must be 40 years [old]. But they will not understand what the ANC stands for,” Masondo said.
“That will show in different ways — who we elect at the branch level, provincial level and national level. If the branches are weak, it will show at different levels of the organisation; what they tolerate and what they do not tolerate as members of ANC, because all of us are elected by branches based on the certain expectation of leadership,” Masondo said.
“Why should I be elected — why should I also avail myself to be elected — knowing that I’ll step aside immediately, because you are elected to serve; you are not elected to step aside …The matter we should raise is whether we should allow people who are criminally charged to stand for elected positions. The NEC very soon will have to express itself on that matter.”
Masondo also expressed sharp views on the ANC’s upcoming national elective conference, arguing that the party needed to terminate everyone’s membership and set clear criteria for membership admission. He said this should include undertaking political education classes and a proven record for community work.
Instead of hosting its 55th national elective conference this year, the ANC should have a consultative conference to discuss who should be a member and a leader of the party, he said, adding that hosting an elective conference under these “conditions of poor quality of our members will be disastrous”.
Another call for a consultative conference in recent years came during former president Jacob Zuma’s term, when many were calling for him to resign as president. ANC elders made the call for the party to discuss how to stem its loss of support.
In 2017 party elders boycotted a planned two days set aside for the consultative conference on the sidelines of the ANC’s Nasrec policy conference, feeling that top officials had gone against their wish to separate the two. This raised the ire of Zuma, who accused the stalwarts and veterans of arrogantly thinking they still had power in the organisation.
Masondo said the consultative conference would have to discuss the organisational design and form of the ANC and that the party should consider whether it needed NEC commissions for economic transformation and social transformation, which he argued were not organically centred around the people.
“I think we need commissions on different sectors, where the people are. For instance, commission on workers, youth, professionals, business, women, and so on,” he told the M&G.
“I strongly feel that an ANC elective conference won’t produce any focus on the renewal of the ANC. It will simply perpetuate the ANC problems — factionalism [and] thuggery, enabled by the poor quality of our membership.”
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