People of SA are gripped with great anguish about the future of their country. There are multiple crises that constrain the development potential of our country. I wish to list some of these priorities for your consideration: the economy and jobs, corruption, crime and violence, cost of living, energy security and social security. I hope you will find the opportunity to discuss some of these issues during your conference. The year 2022 has been littered with ANC regional and provincial conferences that simply focus on conference credentials and the election of leadership.
There have been a dearth of ideas and intellectual rigour in your organisation over the past 15 years. At some point there was a demonisation of those who apply their minds to issues, termed “clever blacks”. Even in your party structures, such people were cast to the margins of participation and political leadership. This began to destroy the ethos of the party’s commitment to build a “non-sexist, nonracial and prosperous society”. There was a clear departure from your seminal document Through the Eye of a Needle. This left the party in limbo, ceasing to be “the leader of society” and opening itself up to have some of its structures being led by crooks, indecisive and unethical leaders.
For this reason, you may have been among the delegates that decided ten years ago on “the decade of the cadre”. It is time to reflect on the quality of the cadre in the ANC since the Mangaung national conference in 2012. Many of your leaders have lamented the quality of membership in your party. This means the last decade has been wasted. The ANC has become notorious for good diagnosis and poor implementation of its resolutions. This is what will obliterate the party’s existence.
Stop nursing your divisions so much that you become scared to clean your own house. Start acknowledging that the quality of leadership you choose this weekend will determine whether you will remain a majority party after the 2024 elections. South Africans are no longer interested in your gambling with compromised leaders because it materially affects the country.
I have no doubt that if you take gambles this weekend, South Africans will look beyond the ANC towards 2024. While you tear the movement of Oliver Tambo apart, the citizens will refuse for you to tear the country apart along with it.
By Lukhona Mnguni, Head of Policy and Research at the Rivonia Circle.
Source: Business Day
