By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Former African National Congress (ANC) President Thabo Mbeki has called on party members in the Free State to put an end to infighting and return to the revolutionary values of the movement.
The ANC Free State has been embroiled in internal strife and factionalism, with members fighting for positions.
Mbeki, who is in Welkom for a two-day political visit, where he is deliberating on intervention aimed at evaluating the advancements achieved since the ANC Free State Interim Provincial Committee pledged to renew the ANC in the province.
He emphasised the ANC would fail to “defend the revolution” without dedicated revolutionaries within its ranks.
“How do we therefore transform ourselves into these revolutionaries?” He shared a private conversation he had with the provincial chairperson, referring to a statement by former ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe about members scrambling for positions. “People fighting for positions to be deployed as MPs, MPLs, and so on, to get money… I asked if that happens in the Free State, and he nodded,” Mbeki revealed.
Mbeki said, the challenges faced by the ANC in the Free State, stem from a lack of renewal. “We need to go back to the drawing board and heed the call by the population by doing what is right.”
Recently, the provincial ANC Youth League (ANCYL) expressed deep concerns about the exclusion of young people from provincial leadership roles. ANCYL Chairperson Xolani Tseletsele criticised the composition of the new Provincial Executive Council (Exco), noting young voices had been sidelined.
The PEC admits that the ANC has not been acting accordingly. ANC Chairperson Mxolisi Dukwana said actions should be aligned accordingly to achieve desired outcomes.
“We don’t need a dysfunctional ANC. We must work together and be intentional and deliberate, said Dukwana.”
Mbeki added he will make a follow-up visit to ensure that the PEC has implemented renewal and rebuilding of the party.
Meanwhile ANC Acting National Spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi said that a decision on the Kwazulu-Natal (KZN) provincial structure will be communicated after the special NEC meeting.
The party slumped to its lowest share following the disruption of former ANC President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe Political Party.
“The national working committee did have a discussion about our visit to KwaZulu-natal in the previous month, but that work is still under review because we are trying to have a comprehensive understanding of the state of the organisation across the country. As we did indicate earlier, a decision about what we do with respect to the structures of the ANC will be communicated after the special ANC meeting that we said will sit either at the end of August or now mid-September.
“It is now clear that that NEC meeting is going to sit in the middle of September due to the outstanding work that we are still going to do. Necessary deployees will be across South Africa tomorrow in a number of provinces in the eastern cape, the northern cape, and Limpopo, where we will be doing the same work of trying to understand, What is the state of our organisation, what the state of the local government, are we in a position to improve the delivery of services to the people, where are the gaps, and what interventions are needed for us to make in order to improve the provision of services on the ground.”