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/ 20 September 2010

Fikile Mbalula: ‘We have allowed anarchy to develop’

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Fikile Mbalula: 'we Have Allowed Anarchy To Develop'

On the eve of the ANC’s national general council, national organiser Fikile Mbalula says those who think president Jacob Zuma may be recalled due to widespread unhappiness are dreaming an impossible dream.

Mbalula gives M&G the low-down on the NGC

ANC head of organising Fikile Mbalula sits down for a chat with the M&G at the ANC’s national general council to give insight into the major issues, the leadership debate and more.

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The ANCYL are bent on installing their former president as Secretary-General of the ANC. But how much noise will they make about it at the ANC’s National General Council next week? We continue our series of people to watch ahead of one of the ruling party’s most important meetings, held once a term.

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It is crunch time for Mbalula. As he pulls up one of the 3 000 empty chairs in Hall One of the Durban Exhibition Centre for our interview, he knows that this national general council will be the place where he will have to show the ANC what he is made of.

Rising through the ranks from the president of the ANC Youth League, Mbalula was tasked with organising the conference delegates. His success at pulling this off will show ANC members whether he deserves their endorsement as secretary general in 2012 — a position that his supporters — including Julius Malema, want him to take over from incumbent Gwede Mantashe.

He does not deny the talk about becoming secretary general.

“People have come to me, they propose this and that, especially the branches of the ANC. People engage me,” he tells me frankly. There’s none of the usual mock-shyness on succession that other ANC leaders have used to duck the question in the past.

Mbalula sticks to the rules.

“There will come a stage when people will come to me formally and then I will make proper considerations and I’ll cross the bridge when I get there.”

“To start with the NGC needs to be honest with itself about the sins of incumbency where money plays a role in every election within the ruling party,” said Mbalula.

“There is money-laundering in the organisation, people buy each other.”

He speaks of meetings being disrupted, and said delegates have been stabbed by those with opposing views.

“As leaders we have allowed anarchy to develop,” he admitted soberly, saying decisiveness was required.

NGC movers and shakers: Fikile Mbalula

Mbalula is probably the only one of the the 2 000 delegates and 1 500 guests who will not be nervous about what tricks ANC Youth League president Julius Malema may have up his sleeve. The league has spoken of using the NGC to insist on the overturning of the outcome of Malema’s disciplinary hearing and to ask for a generational mix during leadership elections in years to come.

Mbalula is Malema’s staunch ally and the two have been inseparable in the run-up to the conference, touring KwaZulu-Natal to build support.

It is clear that Mbalula is looking forward to hearing the youth league make its voice heard at the conference.

‘Essence of our revolution’
“I think the youth league has been very militant and progressive. That is the essence of our revolution, it represents permanent imagination. If we cease to think about people’s lives and how we want to change them, there will be no reason for us to call ourselves a liberation movement,” said Mbalula.

How will the conference, which is supposed to take stock of the ANC’s rule since the Polokwane conference, judge president Jacob Zuma?

“President Zuma acquitted himself well up to so far. He’s given his all, he spends his time in the branches and he really works hard. He is not fake.”

Mbalula, who helped get Zuma to power at Polokwane, still unwittingly compares him with former president Thabo Mbeki when he sings Zuma’s praises.

“[Zuma] is the one person where you can step in and exchange ideas. He’s accessible. His collective has been able to say to him ‘president, this direction, or president, that direction’.”

Zuma’s greatest achievement thus far has been the drawing up of performance agreements for ministers, said Mbalula.

“He made it clear to people that you are not in that position for life.”

And there is no doubt that Zuma will see through his term and not risk the humiliation Mbeki faced at being recalled by his party.

“He will definitely finish his term. People must never make dreams that can never be fulfilled. If one of those dreams is to see president Zuma not finishing his term, it is never realisable.”

Mbalula gets to his feet, takes his cellphone from his bodyguard and gets ready to rush off to the next mini-crisis. Before that he takes the time to shake hands.

“Thank you. And we’ll talk,” he says.

There will be a lot of talk at this conference. But whether it is on nationalisation, leadership renewal or Jacob Zuma, Mbalula’s voice will be heard.

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