By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@AlaisterRussell.
Former president Thabo Mbeki says the current state of the ANC is of concern and South Africans’ confidence in the party is diminishing.
Mbeki was delivering the Walter Sisulu Memorial Lecture on Saturday afternoon.
“The survival of the ANC threatens our country and all 60 million citizens, which is virtually in a general political and socio-economic crisis. It cannot, and must not, be that we, the ANC leadership, are trapped in an organisational death wish”.
He decried that it was of the utmost importance for the ANC to renew itself as this would mean ridding corruption and corroded governance capacity.
More worrying was that the renewal and therefore survival of the ANC was not only important in the context of party members, but also as the country’s dominant political formation it concerned South Africans in general.
According to Mbeki, the ANC was likely to remain the dominant party in the foreseeable future meaning they would be in government for many years to come; therefore, its renewal affected all South Africans.
However, the snail pace in driving this conference mandate was of great concern.
“But here is the deeply worrying reality in this regard — the ANC NEC has done nothing to honour both the 2017 Conference directive and its own 2021 commitment,” Mbeki said.
Obviously and naturally, the question arises — is the ANC National Executive Committee willing and able to discharge its responsibilities with regard to the ‘absolute and urgent priority’ of the renewal of the ANC?
Though the ANC has made some inroads in dealing with corruption, albeit slow with some resistance internally, the party has been able to admit that its leadership and membership is riddled with corruption.
The party has also recently embarked on a clean-up campaign removing from its leadership those who are facing corruption criminal charges in court, while those facing allegations appear before its integrity commission.
This however is taking place just over a year before the ANC is expected to have its next national conference in 2022 and ahead of this year’s elections.
Mbeki added that, being associated with all these negatives — corruption, corrosion of governance capacity, weakening of state institutions, among others — poses a threat to the survival of the once glorious movement.
He said that ANC’s renewal remained a national imperative and that it remained “a prayer to the future that the ANC NEC will not be found wanting in this regard”.
Mbeki also said the ANC had to do an honest assessment on how much the quality of life of ordinary South African citizens has improved in the 27 years that the party has been in power.
He said the renewal of the ANC was imperative.
Mbeki also spoke on the Covid-19 pandemic and how the government handled it.
“The measures introduced to stop the spread of the virus led to a sharp decline of economic activity. And it has a direct effect on the livelihoods of South Africans, their prospects for finding work, recovery of their businesses and our collective future. Our economy is facing the worst crisis since 2008.”
He said the state was running out of options.
Mbeki reflected on the Freedom Charter, which was endorsed in Kliptown, Soweto, 66 years ago. In 1955, the ANC sent 50 000 volunteers into various parts of the country, to collect “freedom demands” from South Africans. The charter was officially adopted on 26 June.