The winds of change are blowing in the ANC. On the sixth floor of Luthuli House, secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe has removed all the paintings and decorations from the walls as he prepares to leave his office in three months.
Neatly wrapped and folded in the corner, the destination of his decorations is unknown. Could it be Mahlamba’Ndlopfu (State House), upstairs to the ANC president’s office in Luthuli House, or just somewhere in oblivion?
“As officials of the ANC, we are elected for one term only. Once conference convenes in December and we submit our reports, we will thank the membership for having afforded us the opportunity to serve them and then we go. Come December and I’m out of here.”
Motlanthe at least accepts that he is on his way out although he could be eyeing a higher post. The most coveted post is the ANC presidency.
Zuma/Mbeki
The incumbent, Thabo Mbeki, and the aspirant successor, Jacob Zuma, have successfully divided the party into two warring factions for the post. Last year, the national executive committee (NEC) resolved that the two should jointly address ANC structures across the country as part of a process to heal the divisions.
Motlanthe admits that that has not happened. “The situation we face in the ANC is a challenging one but not a crisis. The process would have been followed to the letter if it were the only one necessary for us to deal with. Remember that we are a ruling party now and many people have a vested interest in ANC positions.”
Motlanthe is the link between government and the ruling party, and this has sometimes resulted in clashes with Mbeki over instances where government politics encroach on the party.
Madlala-Routledge
The most recent example was when Mbeki strongly hinted that the party should consider disciplining dismissed deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge in his weekly online letter. Motlanthe then went public, saying the ANC would not act over and above government actions. Motlanthe has previously been quoted saying the ANC is not a subcommittee of government or Cabinet.
Motlanthe says the president has kept him in the loop on events leading to the deputy minister’s axing. He says it was the president who told him that Madlala-Routledge would come to see him after she had refused to resign when Mbeki asked her to.
Motlanthe maintains he was never charged with having to discipline her as the ANC had never considered charging her. “I was mandated to make sure she got a safe landing in Parliament after having been on the executive for a long time. I also had to talk to her to say it would not be useful for her to be seen to be lending her name to a campaign for her reinstatement when she was serving by the president’s invitation in Cabinet. But there was never a decision to charge her. In the ANC we strive to correct and strengthen. We also try to avoid issues of double jeopardy.”
But Motlanthe admits that members who are at loggerheads constantly lobby him to institute disciplinary actions.
Sunday Times
Asked about Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad’s threats to get the government to withdraw advertising from the Sunday Times to punish it for its coverage of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Motlanthe says he is convinced the government would never take a decision like that. “I imagine the minister was expressing his disgust at the treatment of a colleague. But those were his individual opinions. No, Cabinet has not discussed that. That would amount to blacklisting and that would be the start of a slippery slope.”
Preparations for Polokwane
Motlanthe says preparations for the national conference are continuing as planned. His deputy, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, was visiting Polokwane this week to appraise herself on the logistics. He confirms that the party has set up an electoral commission that takes over the nomination process from next month. The commission will accept all nominations and approach all nominated individuals with an acceptance form.
All the nominations will have to be accompanied by records and minutes of branch and provincial meetings where the nominations were finalised. The commission will then do an audit of those documents to ensure that nothing untoward took place during the process. The commission would later send back the nominations to structures and make them public.
However, despite the elaborate process, candidates could still be nominated from the floor at the Âcongress provided they enjoy 25% support of delegates.
Membership
The party looks set to experience an explosion of membership ahead of the conference. This week, the Eastern Cape ANC, which claims a massive 190 000 (down from an initial projection of 240 000) had sent its leaders to Luthuli House to clarify its figures. Motlanthe says the increase naturally follows from the Imvuselelo Campaign to rejuvenate branches two years ago. He says ANC membership will for the first time increase to well beyond 500 000. The audit of the membership is expected to be concluded this weekend.
Cosatu
Cosatu is expected for the first time to draw up a list of its preferred Âpeople to lead.
Given that the ANC says it will never, on the eve of a Cosatu or SACP congress, go around distributing lists of its candidates, can the ANC live with what Cosatu is doing?
“They themselves are aware that they can’t nominate as a block. As a body of opinion who also have ANC members they can influence the ANC at a branch level. For as long as they don’t engage in activities that would factionalise members of the ANC, we have no problem.”
Kgalema for president
Motlanthe’s name appears in all three lists drawn up by Mbeki, Zuma and Tokyo Sexwale supporters. But he insists that those who have drawn up lists and taken them to newspapers are behaving in an ill-disciplined fashion. The July NEC had said members could discuss leadership without nominations. Provinces must first convene provincial general councils, and the women and the youth league national general councils to finalise their lists before proclaiming their nominations. After completing the processes they have to send their written nominations with records in a sealed envelope to the electoral commission.
“Whatever has come out so far is not the gospel truth.”
On speculation that he would be nominated as president or deputy, Motlanthe says such talk was “coffee house bubbles not worthy of response. I will not even say I will accept if Ânominated because that would amount to canvassing. I will cross that bridge when I come to it.”
Service delivery
Motlanthe says although it is not specifically on the agenda, the issue of the mushrooming of service delivery protests countrywide was likely to be discussed. “There is sufficient concern about that.” Motlanthe blames ANC structures at local level for their inability to detect and therefore act on community grievances.
“As a party at local level we should be keeping a pulse on the mood of our communities. We should be part of the communities and not praise singers of councillors or municipalities. If there is something wrong in our municipalities, we should be the first to say so.”