Five members of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) will compete for the ailing party’s top job at this year’s national conference in Qwa Qwa between September 22 and 25.
Current president Motsoko Pheko, his deputy Themba Godi, secretary general Mofihli Likotsi, former Azanian People’s Liberation Army commander Letlapa Mphahlele and former secretary general Thami ka Plaatjie have all indicated an interest in the party’s presidency.
However, Mphahlele has joined forces with Ka Plaatjie in campaigning for just one presidential candidate to be nominated.
”That one person should be me because I have a history of not being a member of factions within the party,” said Mphahlele.
He is popular for authorising massacres and police and army camp ambushes before the 1994 election and his support base is said to be in the Pan African Youth Congress.
Ka Plaatjie has backtracked on his ambitions by saying he ”wishes to be part of a team of good leaders.
”There are many positions within the party which need to be filled beside the presidency,” he says.
”We are going to emerge with a leadership which will be able to steer the PAC to what it should be — an alternative to the ANC.”
Godi, who is one of the PAC’s only three representatives in Parliament, has acknowledged that the party is in need of a change.
”The situation has worsened since Pheko [took over],” he says. ”If you are not in line with his thinking, you are an enemy.” Godi believes for the PAC to grow, it should change its radical socialist approach.
But PAC national organiser Ntsie Mohloai disagrees. ”There are people who come and bring their capitalist influence into the party,” he says. ”Some are conservatives who serve the interests of the bourgeoisie.”
Mohloai said that apart from discussing ”taking over the country from the ANC”, the conference will tackle land restoration, constitutional amendments and the economy.
Political analyst Sanusha Naidu said the ”PAC has always been in the shadow of the ANC” and has not managed to recover from Patricia de Lille’s departure.
She cited its ”robust leadership approach” and homophobic comments made by Pheko earlier this year as raising queries about the modernity of the party.
”The party is failing to make any positive political inroads and that means as a black political party it doesn’t really represent the interests of the people,” she said.