It was time for the ANC to act against those prematurely mobilising and lobbying for succession, party president Jacob Zuma said on Monday.
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“Mobilising and lobbying for succession so early also gives the wrong impression that the ANC comprises of groups of people who are pre-occupied with fighting for influential positions to advance personal interests instead of advancing the programme of the organisation,” Zuma told delegates at the midterm policy review conference in Durban.
“It is clear that the time has come for the organisation to act. We must take a decision that those who engage in such activities are in fact undermining the organisation and its work and at worst, are undermining the unity of the organisation.
“Action must be taken against them.”
Zuma said a decision was taken by the national executive committee in May to ban public spats and discussions of the 2012 succession and related leadership preferences.
The African National Congress’ top leadership body took the decision to strengthen unity, prevent confusion and avoid undermining the confidence of the membership in their current leadership.
The ANC Youth League had recently come out in support of its former president, Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to replace current ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe at the next elective conference in 2012.
At the ANCYL’s own national general council last month, songs were sung in support of Mbalula and delegates held placards favouring him over Mantashe.
Zuma said action would also be taken against members of the ANC who continued to attack others publicly and he expressed concern about “labelling” and “other divisive tendencies that are also creeping in”.
‘Dangerous method of lobbying’
“For example, we have always said the ANC is a broad church but suddenly, there are now people who are said to be about, ‘anti-Communist’ and others who are ‘anti-nationalist’.”
Zuma said a new “dangerous method of lobbying” had emerged where people use money to buy support.
He slammed the “abuse of lobbying” which had been a long-standing democratic practice in the ANC.
“It cannot and should not take the form of an instruction on who to vote for, and thereby creating a culture of despising the will of the ANC branch members in good standing, in the manner that the
‘slate’ method is doing.
“This certainly corrupts the democratic processes of the ANC,” he said.
The “slate method” he referred to was when leadership was decided upon according to lists of members aligned to certain factions. ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe and chairperson Baleka Mbete have also spoken out against the method.
Both leaders were elected on the Zuma slate at the ANC’s 2007 national conference.
Alliance not dying
The ANC’s alliance with the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the SA Communist Party was not about to die, Zuma said.
“All the bold headlines about the imminent death of the alliance are a waste of time and ink because the alliance will live for a long time to come,” he said.
Zuma said the recent strike by public servants required “serious introspection” from individual alliance partners and the alliance collectively.
But, he said the party had decided to engage with Cosatu to evaluate the strike.
“It would be wrong if we do not talk about some of the things that have characterised the recent strike which are alien to the history of the workers’ struggle and the congress movement, and also to deal with the serious distortion of the history, mission, and character of the ANC that we witnessed during the strike.”
‘ANC has always fought on the side of the workers’
Zuma said some of the statements made by striking workers and some in the leadership of Cosatu had suggested the ANC had abandoned the struggle of the workers and the poor.
“The ANC has always fought on the side of the workers and will continue to do so. As far as we are concerned, there is no ambiguity about our being in alliance with Cosatu.”
He said: “It is important comrades that we should not play around with this alliance.”
Zuma said however that the right to strike should never be used to undermine the rights of other people.
“We must win over people to join the strike out of political consciousness and sympathy, and not through violence and intimidation and destruction of property.”
He said the alliance “… will live for a long time to come”.
Zuma also said a new growth path had to be set for the country. It had to recognise that, on the one hand, there had been economic growth for a sustained period since the advent of democracy, however on the other, poverty still remained high and inequalities were worsening.
The economic downturn saw the loss of over a million jobs in the country and job losses were continuing despite economic growth. This worsened the unacceptably high rate of joblessness.
“The party’s research had shown that the economy had the potential to create employment through large scale expansion in infrastructure in mining, agriculture and construction.” – Sapa