ANC dissidents have a right to form their own party, but any efforts to cause chaos within the ruling party will not be tolerated, party president Jacob Zuma in the United States on Tuesday.
The maturity of South Africa’s democracy meant people could organise and speak out against the ANC, ”no matter how fictional the accusations”, he told a luncheon of the council of foreign relations in
Washington DC.
”However, like any organisation, we will not allow the dissidents to mobilise dissent within our movement. We will take disciplinary action against those who use ANC structures to sow conflict within the organisation.
”It is part of organisational procedure and has nothing to do with intolerance of opposition.”
Zuma said the breakaway group was led by ”some few” ANC members who failed to get leadership positions after the Polokwane conference, or during provincial congresses.
”We respect the right of this small group to organise and form any party of their choice.”
Zuma said there was much ”hype” around the dissident group. The media was attracted to it because they felt it might provide an alternative to the ”highly dominant” ANC.
Zuma said the ANC would govern South Africa for ”many decades to come”. No opposition party had put forward policies that challenged the ANC’s.
”Most opposition parties spend their time criticising the ANC instead of putting forward convincing policy alternatives.”
He said the dissident group had ”fallen into the same trap, exploiting anger at losing leadership positions”.
”Let me emphasise that the ANC is already preparing to govern for another term next year.”
Zuma said the ANC was proud of a stable and robust democracy with effective institutions.
”We will continue to ensure the independence of the judiciary, the supremacy of the rule of law, the freedom of the media, and to support all institutions that protect our citizens, such as the Office of the Public Protector, South African Human Rights Commission, the Commission on Gender Equality and others.”
The way former president Thabo Mbeki handled the ”debacle around his resignation… added another feather in our democracy cap”.
Polokwane mandate
The ANC would not change policy direction from that agreed upon at the party’s Polokwane conference.
”Central to our mandate from Polokwane is to achieve economic growth that will allow us to create decent jobs and decisively deal with poverty.”
Due to regulations like exchange controls and tight banking rules, the country was not heavily affected by the global financial crisis.
”However, we are likely to be affected by the worldwide reduced demand for commodities, reduced consumer demand for products and services and reduced financial liquidity.”
On the economic summit the party and its alliance partners held last weekend, Zuma said: ”The purpose … was to translate economic resolutions from the Polokwane conference into concrete proposals to be
considered by any new government.”
Initiatives agreed upon at the summit included creating ”decent work”.
Responding to remarks by political analysts that ANC policies in the post-Polokwane period would be dictated by the South African Communist Party and Cosatu, he said: ”ANC policies were decided upon in Polokwane at an ANC conference, not a Cosatu or SACP conference.
”The resolutions are well known and are public knowledge. ANC policies are not decided by an individual or a clique, but by a collective through well-defined policy development processes.”
He said the party was fleshing out the details of these policies for implementation.
Zuma also said the new ANC administration would demonstrate ”more visible action” in the fight against HIV and Aids at every level. While prevention measures continued to get attention, more effort also needed to be devoted to treatment.
An anti-crime strategy would soon be outlined that demonstrated a ”tough and decisive” response.
South Africa continued to support a political solution in Zimbabwe.
”South Africa cannot afford Zimbabwe to remain in a state of near collapse for long, as a meltdown in that country impacts on us directly.”
He said Mbeki’s mediation efforts were fully supported. – Sapa