African National Congress (ANC) members who have been working ”underground” for the new party that is due to be launched on December 16 will now come out and publicly support the party that is mooted by former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa.
This will form part of a fresh spate of resignations that Shilowa says is due to take place this week.
”There will be people coming out today, there will be people coming out on Monday, there will be people coming out on Tuesday … and so on,” he said.
Shilowa, flanked by former deputy minister of defence Mluleki George and former South African Communist Party treasurer Philip Dexter, addressed a press conference on Sunday after the national convention drew to a close on Saturday night. The steering committee of the convention is due to finalise the name of the new party on Sunday after delegates on Saturday compelled the leadership to register a name with the Independent Electoral Commission.
An interim leadership group will also be chosen on Sunday that will be responsible for the logistical and political preparations for the launch conference.
Shilowa, however, stressed that the leadership of the new party must not only consist of former ANC members and leaders.
”We want new faces, new blood, new thinkers.”
George told reporters that ANC members who are deployed as provincial ministers and mayors will now start showing their true colours, because the list processes are coming up in which candidates to represent the new party will be chosen.
These lists will show who will be parliamentarians in the national and provincial legislature after the 2009 elections.
Some ANC MPs risked their positions by attending the convention, George said, but ”they knew that this is the price [they] had to pay”.
”Being underground has a timeframe. Once we have started the list processes, they must come out. You can’t be campaigning for two parties. You can’t be on two lists.”
In the ANC’s heartland, the Eastern Cape, some leaders within the provincial leadership who hold high-level government positions in the province are expected to tender their resignations to the ANC. According to George, they are prepared to also lose their positions as provincial ministers and mayors.
He urged ANC members to keep their ANC membership cards and T-shirts.
”We say to them, don’t return the T-shirts and the cards, keep them as your heritage. They are part of our heritage.”
‘We will still respect them’
Meanwhile, the new party ”wants to become the next government”, says Shilowa, so that it can be judged by its actions rather than its pronouncements.
For this purpose discussion documents will be prepared ahead of the launch conference in December to formulate the policies of the new party.
A key policy area will be transparency in the funding of political parties, which Shilowa has pronounced will be a cornerstone of the new party.
The price tag for the convention, held at the plush Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, came to R5-million. Shilowa said the members and supporters of the convention and the new party will foot the bill through contributions and fundraising activities that took place over the last few weeks. In an interview with the Mail & Guardian earlier, he vowed to make public the details of the main donors of the party. His businesswoman wife. Wendy Luhabe. has already came out to declare her support for the convention and the new party.
Shilowa said that he will say how much money the party has available after the convention bills have been settled and what will be done with it.
He also warned businesspeople to financially support the new party for the right reasons.
”It does not mean if you fund a political party you get access to government tenders and contracts.”
Shilowa underscored the fact that former president Thabo Mbeki is not involved in the convention or the new party, but said he is also not ”our enemy”.
”Thabo Mbeki is not our enemy. Some of the people who are with us revere Thabo Mbeki. Some people who are not members of the ANC revere Thabo Mbeki. Nelson Mandela is not one of us, but he is not our enemy. The ANC will become an opposition party, but their leaders will not be our enemies, we will still respect them.”