African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe on Wednesday warned ANC members it was a mistake to remain in the party merely to retain positions of power.
”If they are in the ANC to hold positions they are in the wrong place,” Mantashe said at a press briefing ahead of the party’s National List Conference to take place at Esselen Park in Kempton Park, Gauteng, this weekend.
”People must be in the ANC because they believe in what it is doing,” he said.
His comment follows a number of high-profile defections to the newly formed Congress of the People (Cope).
”Our attitude is very simple: anybody who wants to go to any party can go to that party and we are not going to use the list conference and the list process to retain people,” he said.
”Being deployed to a position must just be a consequence of being active in the ANC, but anybody who wants to remain because he or she must be given some space in the list … that would be a wrong reason to be in the ANC and I would imagine it would be a wrong reason to be in any other party actually.”
It was recently reported that ANC bigwig Saki Macozoma had defected to Cope; however, Mantashe could not confirm receiving Macozoma’s resignation from the party.
”His resignation was announced by Mbhazima Shilowa. He may have sent a letter of his intention to Mbhazima Shilowa, so we have not received the letter.”
Shilowa, previously an ANC member, was one of the co-founders of Cope.
Mantashe added he was not aware of any other defections to the breakaway party, comprised mostly of supporters of former president Thabo Mbeki.
The National List Conference will take place on January 24 and 25, and is a key process in determining future holders of government positions should the ANC win the elections.
Mantashe said all the provinces concluded their list conferences over the past weekend.
”The ANC has placed much emphasis on selecting candidates for Parliament and provincial legislature that have a track record of involvement in communities, who are familiar with consultative processes and who are able to forge partnerships in implementation.
”ANC branches selected candidates on the basis of their own experiences and inter-branch consultation … now when we talk of inter-branch consultation, that is lobbying.
”Members of the ANC lobby each other aggressively.”
Reports indicate that conferences in some provinces were fraught with difficulty, but according to Mantashe, the national list committee would meet on Thursday to discuss the problems encountered and iron them out.
In the national list process candidates nominated are screened to ensure that they are nominated by at least five branches, their criminal and insolvency status is checked and they must comply with the party’s deployment requirements. — Sapa