The newly elected ANC Veterans League leadership will focus on beefing up the governing party’s integrity and consequence management structures to ensure that only “the best” candidates make its parliamentary lists next year.
The newly elected ANC Veterans League leadership will focus on beefing up the governing party’s integrity and consequence management structures to ensure that only “the best” candidates make its parliamentary lists next year.
They will also develop an action plan to implement the recommendations of the Zondo commission into state capture with regard to the 97 cases involving ANC members.
Veterans league president Snuki Zikalala, who was elected by consensus at its conference last weekend, said this week that implementing resolutions regarding renewal and the “tightening” of ANC membership would help the renewal of the organisation become a reality.
“Organisational renewal and tightening of ANC membership are there in the resolutions; political education is in the resolutions, along with the building of capacity at national and provincial level of the disciplinary structures of the ANC,” Zikalala said.
“Our other focus is the strengthening of the capacity of the disciplinary and appeals structures and the integrity commission. We will also establish oversight capacity on all consequence management structures in the ANC.”
The party’s electoral commission would also need to be strengthened.
Zikalala said the interventions were essential so that the ANC came out of its list process ahead of 2024 with a group of candidates who were above reproach.
“Going through the list process, we have to select the best out of our candidate pool to ensure that those who become our public representatives are the best that we have,” Zikalala said.
Turning to the weekend conference, at which he and deputy president Mavuso Msimang were elected unopposed, Zikalala said they had chosen a leadership through consensus to ensure gender, racial and geographic representation and a spread of the skills needed.
The approach was a far cry from the trench warfare between factions that has marked party regional, provincial and national conferences for the past two decades.
Unlike the ANC Women’s League and ANC Youth League conferences held earlier this year, the veterans started their programme on time without proceedings being delayed by battles over credentials.
The veterans avoided registration battles by allowing each of the provinces to contribute to a consolidated list, preventing any domination of proceedings at the conference by the Eastern Cape, which had 125 of the 450 delegates.
Zikalala said provincial secretaries had drawn up the list after asking ANC electoral commision chairperson Kgalema Motlanthe for 30 minutes to consult and draw up the consensus list to avoid a stalemate.
“The provincial secretaries met and emerged with a list which ensured the geographic spread, involved comrades from all racial groups with the requisite skills in the NEC [national executive committee] and which reflected the true character of the ANC,” he said.
Zikalala said the veterans would make their skills available at a party level and more broadly to ensure that the ANC delivered on its policies, which was not possible without the proper skills base.
They would also encourage people to participate in municipal programmes aimed at employing the skills of retired engineers and other specialists.
“We appeal to our members, and all members of society who have skills, to be part and parcel of these projects,” Zikalala said.
“Efficiency is critical. We have experience, we have wisdom and we are committed to contributing to bringing back the integrity and dignity of the ANC. It is very important that we set an example. The president said we should raise the bar — that’s what we did.”
Zikalala said the “misunderstanding” with secretary general Fikile Mbalula’s office over the starting time had been resolved.
“There was a misunderstanding with his office. He will have to deal with that. We have moved forward. The conference was a success. We said we would finish at 2pm and we finished at 2pm.”
The veterans were “very clear” that the ANC “cannot go into a coalition with a party that does not subscribe to the values of the Constitution and does not believe in the rule of law”.
They had warned against coalitions with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at municipal level, which were elevating the Red Berets at the expense of the ANC.
“You cannot go into a coalition with a party that says openly that its aim is to unseat you. Why go into a coalition with a party which says that your president must go now? That is not possible,” Zikalala said.
He said that the ANC’s choice of coalition partners should be based on a common commitment to deliver services to the poor.
“As long as we know where they stand on service delivery, on ensuring that there is electricity, sanitation, water and refuse collection for the poor, we can work with a party,” ZIkalala said. “Delivery of services to the poor should be the determining factor.”