Meet the new ANC ideal candidate for the 2004 general elections: a member in good standing with a proven track record of involvement in the democratic movement, with no history of ill-discipline or corruption, not involved in factions and never having violated the ANC’s code of conduct.
ANC member Mpho Lekgoro says the thoroughness is an acknowledgement that in the post-apartheid era many people have joined the ANC but have ”not always lived up to expectations”.
Now the ANC is looking for honest, non-corruptible individuals with integrity, who are above reproach in their social and political conduct, who have the conviction to state their views openly within the movement and seek to influence and be influenced.
This is the candidate that ANC branches have started identifying. The party is the first organisation to announce a comprehensive plan to fight the elections.
But struggle credentials are not enough — candidates must also submit a CV listing their areas of expertise, to determine where they can be deployed.
The search in a diminishing pool of candidates takes place while the movement struggles to overcome the revolving door of MPs who leave for the private sector once they have been trained in Parliament. The ANC has simultaneously embarked on a process to review the performance of all its current MPs and MPLs.
ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said that the party was learning from its experience of reviewing local government councillors before the 2000 local elections.
That process led to dissatisfaction among some councillors. Many who were not being returned to office decided to contest independently against ANC-nominated councillors and were subsequently expelled from the party.
So where would the ideal ANC candidates come from? According to ANC spokesperson Steyn Speed, they will come ”from within and also from outside the current structures”.
”In 1994 we had no experienced MPs at all, but we managed to come up with 150 MPs. Obviously we are not expecting each candidate to have every one of the characteristics, but collectively the blend of different qualities should give us the type of representation we want,” he said.
Lekgoro said that when experienced MPs and MPLs were poached by outsiders there was always an abundance of capable replacements. ”Out of 44-million citizens, we never struggle, but we strive to improve our mechanisms to get the best.”
The ANC has not always got it right. Some of its MPs have been convicted of serious crimes such as corruption and fraud. Others have been convicted of petty offences such as stealing a fellow parliamentarian’s cellphone.
Provincial legislatures have been riddled with infighting. This resulted in the disbandment of provincial structures in Gauteng, Limpopo, Free State and the Eastern Cape.
In order to ensure that candidates are above reproach, the current MPs will be assessed by whips, committee chairs in Parliament or legislatures and provincial ANC structures.
After nomination the candidates’ CVs will be screened.
Higher structures within the party will assess the final list and could intervene where a list is deemed not geographically representative or where there is not sufficient representation of women.
The ANC will convene a conference in November to approve all lists. Delegates will include the provinces, leagues and alliance partners.