African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Baleka Mbete said disgruntled party members who plan to start their own movement were wasting their energy, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Sunday.
She was speaking to journalists after addressing Gauteng ANC branches and regions at the Johannesburg City Hall. The meeting was part of a national campaign to explain the ANC national executive committee’s decision to recall former president Thabo Mbeki last week.
Mbete, who is South Africa’s new deputy president, said disgruntled members should take their grievances to internal structures.
”The ANC believes that anybody who is thinking of going off and forming another party is wasting their energy.
”The rules and practices of the ANC allow people to raise whatever grievances they might have and express themselves. So we think it will be a wrong perspective to go off and form another entity,” said Mbete.
Full support
Meanwhile, the South African Communist Party (SACP) has pledged to throw its full weight behind the ANC-led alliance in order to insure an overwhelming victory in next year’s general elections.
”The SACP is committed to participate fully and energetically in the 2009 elections,” SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said on Sunday.
Nzimande, briefing journalists at a SACP conference in Johannesburg, said the prospects of an election victory included strengthening and forging the alliance.
Nzimande said the SACP would continue to engage with the ANC on its manifesto.
Commenting on the upcoming alliance economic summit, the SACP said the South African Reserve Bank policy on inflation targeting was not working and the summit was an opportunity for the alliance to discuss a better policy.
The SACP also called for the establishment of a political council within its alliance with the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Nzimande said.
He said it was necessary to set up the council that would comprise senior officials of the tripartite alliance.
”This senior body would sit regularly as a key coordinating body that would drive the alliance’s common programmes,” Nzimande said.
He said the ”reconfigured” alliance would strengthen the tripartite alliance.
SACP deputy secretary general Jeremy Cronin said the ANC had spoken about the renewal of the alliance because it was aware of the ”highly unstable” manner in which the alliance had been functioning.
Commenting on the recent events that led to Mbeki’s resignation, Cronin said the SACP felt vindicated since it had initially called for Mbeki’s recall in May.
”We made the call in May on a political judgement. We had many differences with Mbeki over the years. Hopefully now we can put the issue behind us and focus on bigger issues,” Cronin said. — Sapa