Gauteng provincial secretary David Makhura said the ANC needed to jack up its capacity as a transformative movement.
|||The ANC has done some soul searching and found itself wanting on several fronts – from infighting and corruption to unskilled cadres – as it tries to cement its dominance of the SA political landscape.
Speaking at the launch on Tuesday, of the party’s policy discussion document on organisational renewal, Gauteng provincial secretary David Makhura said the ANC needed to jack up its capacity as a transformative movement. It could not be allowed to “degenerate into a force that is trapped in internal fights”.
“We have a greater mission in society… The ANC has to resist any efforts to transform it into a narrow political party whose day-to-day preoccupations are internal struggles… or winning elections,” he said.
A new breed of politically conscious, skilled and disciplined cadres was needed to move the party forward and raise education levels among ANC members and leaders, he said. If the ANC did not educate its members, it could end up in “permanent disciplinary mode”.
His remarks came as ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema prepared for his appeal on Thursday against his expulsion from the party.
Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula rejected the view that the biggest cause of the ANC’s continuous in-fighting was the 2007 Polokwane elective conference. “It is disingenuous to suggest that factionalism, ill-discipline and infighting started in the run-up to and after Polokwane.
“We must also dismiss the subjective inclination to personalise organisation challenges and attribute them to specific individuals who hold leadership positions,” he said.
Mbalula said the document was a frank assessment of the organisation and a reflection on its 18 years of experience in governance. The document, released at Luthuli House, was intended to address all the challenges facing the ANC and to put in place drastic measures to resolve those weaknesses.
Challenges identified in the document include the departure of senior cadres to business, the deployment and redeployment of cadres in positions without adequate preparation and the recruitment of members unfamiliar with ANC policies.
Neglect and poor execution of the cadre policy are “arguably the principal source of all our organisational and governance challenges”, the document says.
The ANC would “invest heavily” in the ideological and academic training of cadres to equip them with the necessary skills.
The document also says the current attitude and values of members have changed from the ANC’s original values of selflessness, integrity and genuine comradeship to an “everybody for himself or herself and the dog-eat-dog mentality”.
It proposes a six-month probation period for new members on joining the party, rather than the current eight weeks.
Mbalula said the call for organisational renewal had been adopted at the Polokwane conference after a realisation that the ANC had not comprehensively responded to post-1994 realities and socio-economic challenges that came with freedom.
Significant problems still plaguing the country and among the government’s main priorities were poverty, inadequate health and education delivery and unemployment.
The document also proposed enhancing the role of veterans in the ANC, setting up an integrity commission to promote ethical behaviour and strengthening measures to promote self-discipline.
Political Bureau