By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
African National Congress (ANC) Head of Political Education David Makhura says the party should take the renewal process seriously or face another electoral loss in the coming elections.
ANC acting spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi, NEC members Febe Potgieter and Makhura briefed the media in Boksburg.
Makhura emphasised that the party’s internal divisions resulted from the ANC’s long-standing disregard for the basic necessities of society.
He was reflecting on the ANC policy positions on the sidelines of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting.
He said it was time for the ANC to take the renewal process seriously or else it will face another electoral loss in the coming elections.
This is after he admitted that the breakaway parties contributed to the ANC losing power in the recent elections.
So one of the reasons we say has impacted on the ANC electoral performance is the breakaway parties.
“A breakaway and again all the breakaway parties you know formed at different points, and that has had an impact on because we in what we call the motive forces, those social classes and strategy that constitute from whom the ANC has really mobilised for change, get affected by the breakaway parties,” he said.
For the first time in South African democratic history, the ANC failed to win a majority in the elections.
Godlimpi has dared the Democratic Alliance (DA) to exit the Government of National Unity (GNU) or be disciplined because the unity is structured in their favour.
“We won’t beg any party including the DA, we structured the GNU in a way that if they want to walk, they can walk, “he said.
But he said if indeed the DA was committed to the idea of a common stabilisation programme of the country’s political system, they would not pull out of GNU.
Godlimpi was responding to the DA’s Federal chairperson Helen Zille that the two parties were in a coalition government.
He said the GNU as it stands, was the most strategic manoeuvre by the ANC to turn an electoral seer back into a strategic advantage.
Godlimpi accused Zille of feeding the public with wrong information about the GNU and also undermined the political parties involved.
In addition, he said no party could match in terms of intellectual, ideological, political, and organisation.
Godlimpi also outlined the ANC’s vision for a comprehensive national dialogue involving a broad cross-section of South African society
“A national dialogue, for it to be a true social compact, has got to include as representative as possible a cross section of the South African stakeholder framework.
“So that includes civil society formations and others. The discussion now has been about the modalities of how best we do that so that it has the legitimacy that it needs.
Godlimpi said the convention should be like reproducing the model of what the Freedom Charter did.
“We want to have a national conversation, a national dialogue whose outcomes will be as broadly representative of the spirit and understanding of the South African people,
“This includes making sure that you maximise the representation of the voice of the rural poor, of the farm dwellers, of all the other social forces in South Africa that might be neglected from everyday discourse.”
“If we do not get it right when we get to the local government elections, we will not win because this election was fought on a local government platform, not a national government platform.