With little more than a week to go before the ANC conference, the cleft in the party appears to be deepening and sniping between factions more acrimonious and personal. After interviews with party ‘elders’ last week, the Mail & Guardian asked four more senior leaders to reflect on the state of the ANC and its clouded future
Vytjie Mentor: ANC caucus chair in Parliament
I don’t respect any leader who campaigns by denigrating another person. I don’t want to be associated with that kind of leadership. And I question the strength of their convictions if they employ every trick in the book to get a position.
It’s possible to campaign without destroying the other person. There’s no such thing as a totally good or bad person; nobody is an angel.
And why are President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma being assessed separately from the collective? Did they commit their mistakes alone? Where are the people who were leading with them? Why did those around them not stand their ground and influence the decisions they took? You can have an influence at every level; even as ordinary ANC members we can influence decisions.
The first thing everyone must do now is to have mutual respect and treat each another with dignity. This thing is evolving into something that is destructive. Everyone has committed mistakes — why should we focus on that?
What the other elders said
Thenjiwe Mtintso: ‘We need a strategy to heal’
Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge: ‘Give us leaders who care’
Saki Macozoma: ‘A potential for crisis’
We must move towards talking to each other again. The whole country will suffer and cascade into economic and social downfall and generations to come will suffer if people don’t move closer to each other.
A divided ANC does not augur well for a prosperous South Africa. Limpopo is not the be-all and end-all, we must be able to look beyond that.
There’s less dialogue; we’ve opted to talk to each other through the media.
I sometimes do it myself, instead of phoning the Youth League, for example, and telling them to explain themselves on an issue.
Things in the print media are often out of context and meant to strike you in a certain way. If you go to the comrade, they can easily be clarified. But people would rather bottle it up.
But even at this point, how we handle the current situation must be a step towards growth. There must be some people with enough goodwill who want to save the ANC.
We must remember this party is not about ourselves; millions of people out there are counting on us.
Beyond Limpopo we will look to the NEC to pull us together. Some will make it on to the lists, others not. Unity will not be automatic; it will not happen overnight.
We have to plant seeds of unity at Limpopo. Whoever wins will have to face the country knowing that there were people who did not want him.
Even if it is just the tiniest minority, there must be strong-willed and focused people who will take the task of rebuilding unity seriously.