/ 30 November 2007

Mbeki: ANC must defend its values

The African National Congress (ANC) must defend its principles and values without hesitation or ambiguity, regardless of circumstance within or without the party, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

Some people seemed very keen to denounce any restatement of the most basic ANC positions as constituting an attack on ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, he said in his weekly online newsletter, ANC Today.

This effectively communicated the unfortunate message that in the context of his (Zuma’s) desire to become president of the ANC, Zuma was opposed to some of the party’s fundamental principles and values

Mbeki said some time ago he had stated that ANC policy on the emancipation of women and gender equality meant the party would have absolutely no problem in electing a woman as president of the ANC.

”Some promptly denounced this as an attempt to deny Jacob Zuma the possibility to serve as president of the ANC!” he said.

More recently, ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota denounced the use of tribalism by anybody within the ANC to advance any objective whatsoever.

Again this was condemned as an attempt to thwart Zuma’s presidential hopes.

Lekota then said ANC liberation songs had always changed with the changing conditions and tasks, and argued there were songs relevant to the stage of the armed struggle, but counter-productive in the context of the current phase of the national democratic revolution.

Once again, this was denounced as an attack on Zuma, intended to ensure he did not become ANC president.

Mbeki said his own address to the ANC parliamentary caucus on November 20 had also been misinterpreted as an attempt to thwart Zuma.

However, the ANC had to uphold some ”fundamental truths” at all times, regardless of its political calendar, and regardless of the political circumstances within the movement, in the country and the world.

One of these was the ANC’s commitment to women’s emancipation and gender equality.

Another was that from its foundation in 1912, the ANC had been opposed to tribalism, ever determined to ”bury the demon of tribalism”.

Yet another was that the ANC was and had always been opposed to populism.

”An important part of the reason it has survived for nearly 96 years is the fact that it has always remained loyal to principle, constantly refusing to resort to any action solely on the basis that it might, at any particular moment in our history, evoke popular acclaim,” he said.

Another was the ANC would strive constantly to combat and rid itself of opportunist elements who had wormed themselves into its ranks, seeking to use the ANC as a step-ladder to state power, with the intention to use this power for self-enrichment.

The ANC had recognised for some time the fact that its political victory in 1994 also brought new challenges.

To ensure its integrity and maintain its respect among the people, it would and had to continue opposing those within its ranks who abused their membership to access resources, position themselves or others to access resources, dispense patronage, and in the process use the organisational structures to further these goals, thus tarnishing the ANC’s image and effectiveness.

No genuine member of the ANC was or could be opposed to any of these fundamental truths, Mbeki said. — Sapa