President Thabo Mbeki and African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma have established a ”solid working relationship”, the ANC said on Friday.
”Contrary to some expectations, a solid working relationship has been established, with the president of the Republic interacting regularly with the officials,” ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe wrote in an article on the first 100 days after the party’s 52nd national conference in Polokwane.
The relationship would need to be ”further refined over time” as circumstances required.
The first 100 days in office of the new national executive committee (NEC) had dispelled fears expressed about the relationship between the ANC and its government, and the capacity of the government to continue implementing its mandate.
He said the ANC’s constitutional structures had provided direction to party members in government, ”without resorting to micromanagement”.
”As in the past, deployees in the government have looked to the structures of the organisation for direction, and have accounted to them on their progress.”
Various committees established by the NEC were beginning to get to grips with the mandate they had been given by Polokwane.
Mantashe said fears of a post-Polokwane purge of Mbeki supporters from the party had been calmed.
”The idea that members would be prejudiced because of the positions they adopted in advance of, and during, the conference has been dispelled.”
These positive developments needed to filter down to all levels of the organisation, to address whatever differences may have arisen. — Sapa