African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe has accused some ANC leaders of using “gate-keeping” as a strategy to prevent new members with differing views from joining the party.
Delivering his organisational report to delegates at the ANC’s national general council (NGC) in Durban this week, Mantashe also complained about the increasing tendency by some ANC leaders to manipulate membership statistics and the use of money as a way to influence the outcome of elective conferences.
“Having taken all [provinces] through provincial conferences, gate-keeping remains a major problem and a source of resentment among members of the ANC,” said Mantashe.
Mantashe’s gate-keeping accusation against some ANC leaders comes as the leadership battle between nationalists and leftists intensifies ahead of the party’s 2012 national congress.
Mantashe’s view on gate-keeping is also shared by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, who recently told a National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) political school that he was concerned that some ANC branches were deliberately blocking new members from joining the party for factional reasons.
In his organisational report, Mantashe also took a swipe at some ANC branch leaders for frustrating the ANC’s recruitment campaign.
“The role of the branch in recruitment, induction and political education of members has been clarified and elevated to the high level of importance. The only aspect that has been compromised, because of deep-seated factionalism, is the role of a member in recruitment. Efforts of individual members to recruit for the ANC are treated with suspicion and are in the end frustrated. The tendency of branch leaders, when recruiting members, to keep piles of forms and only submit them when there is a biannual general meeting, is the main source of suspicion. This limits the right to recruit in a branch to the officials, at best, and to the branch secretary, at worst,” said Mantashe.
Leadership issues
Although the ANC has so far succeeded in ensuring that leadership issues do not take centre stage at its NGC, lobbying for positions had already started, with the ANC Youth League saying it wants Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to replace Mantashe, while Cosatu and the South African Communist Party support Mantashe’s re-election to his position during the party’s national conference in 2012.
Mantashe also warned that the influence of money in the ANC risked changing the character of the party from being people-centred to one where power was wielded by a narrow circle of those who own and control resources.
This is the centre of the resurgence of factionalism in the movement where contestation is neither political nor ideological but driven by narrow interest, said Mantashe.
Meanwhile, Mantashe’s report painted a gloomy picture about the state of the party, with a sharp decline of ANC branches that are in good standing.
According to the report, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo were the only provinces that had shown a growth in branches in good standing. The Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West and Western Cape have all seen a decline of more than 300 branches in good standing.
Mantashe’s report also shows that the party has for the first time recorded a significant increase in membership, from 621 237 in 2007 to 749 112 this year.
The Zuma factor appears to have played a significant role in KwaZulu-Natal, with the province almost doubling its membership from 102 000 in 2007 to 192 000 this year. Other provinces that have recorded an increase in membership, include Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo, North West and Western Cape.