Optimist: Lindiwe Sisulu ‘didn’t join the ANC
Lindiwe Sisulu wants the ANC to investigate the buying of votes in the party and for it to expel those who tarnish the “sanctity of the organisation”.
As the party prepares to elect its new leaders in December, its secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, has warned against candidates buying support with money and other resources.
Sisulu, the minister of human settlements, said buying votes degraded the ANC “to a point of being bought and sold”.
“The ANC is such a glorious organisation. From its inception to the time when it went underground, there was no money in the ANC. People were not in the ANC because they had something to get out of it; they were in the ANC because they wanted to give their lives to the ANC. That is the sanctity with which we treat the organisation.
“So if there are people who are using money to undermine the integrity of the ANC, I would like to believe that when we do find them that they should be expelled.”
With only a few months left until the ANC’s December conference, the presidential contest has so far been a two-horse race between former African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. But in recent weeks Sisulu has emerged as a compromise candidate.
Some party veterans reportedly view Sisulu as a unifying figure, because she is one of the few senior leaders not associated with any faction and she has not been tainted by corruption.
Those lobbying for her say she is the only leader who can selflessly save the organisation from decay.
“This is somebody who will never be able to sell the ANC, because where is she going to sell it? Remember she didn’t join it, she was born into it,” said one of those lobbying for her, who asked to remain anonymous.
“She can’t turn against herself and we need to take advantage of that. She’s the only leader now who will never be able to sell the ANC. She’ll never do it. If she does, she’ll never be able to sleep at night.”
The ANC is divided and its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and trade union federation Cosatu, have called for President Jacob Zuma to step down. This week workers prevented him from addressing a May Day rally in Bloemfontein in the Free State.
In Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, ANC deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte and ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete, respectively, could also not address the crowds and were heckled off the stages because of their affiliation to Zuma.
Sisulu has acknowledged the ANC’s decline and its loss of public support but she still speaks about the organisation with a warm optimism. Refusing to dwell on where the party has gone wrong, she believes the ANC is still capable of correction.
“Nothing lasts forever and our bad time will not last forever.
“What I regret is when there are public displays of our differences … We need to find a way, away from the public domain, to see how we can find each other again. And there’s no way we can find each other as the ANC unless we are united,” she said.
For Sisulu, the three ANC conferences this year – a policy conference, a consultative conference and an elective conference – will present opportunities to emerge united and restore public hope.
At these, ANC members will have to agree on policy issues, including the much-vaunted policy of radical economic transformation. But questions have been raised about what the policy means and who it will benefit. The SACP has gone as far as referring to it as radical economic looting – an excuse for the politically connected to loot state coffers.
Sisulu says, whatever the definition of the term, the policy will not be effective unless it addresses South Africa’s “fast-ticking time bomb” – inequality.
“For me personally, if it does not deal with the issue of inequality in our community then it will not be dealing with the problems that confront us on the economic front.”
If the concept is adopted, “it will develop and grow, so I’m not worried about what the definition is. I’m just worried that the elements that should be considered when we define this should be dealing with this huge inequality that was created by apartheid.”
Passionate about public administration as the core of governance, she says a thorough understanding of policies and clear road maps on their implementation are vital.
“If we don’t have a capable state, it is very difficult for us to ensure that all these wonderful policies and these wonderful concepts that we are putting together will actually be realised.
“We need a very capable administration to carry forward our plans and our objectives.”