JZ partly to blame – Cronin
THE SACP said it is only logical that President Jacob Zuma should shoulder some of the blame for the ANC’s decline in support in the local gover nment elections, including the loss of three metros to DA-led coalitions.
The party said it was also disappointed by the ANC national executive committee’s response to the decline in support.
The SACP’s central committee is meeting for the first time since the elections and is expected to take a strong stance on the reasons for the ANC experiencing its worst electoral performance.
Deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin said yesterday the party was doubtful whether the ANC had the capacity to arrest what has been a consistent decline of support for the ruling party.
Cronin said while the results could not be attributed to a single factor, there were serious issues directly related to the president.
While the SACP has refrained from an outright call for Zuma to step down, the party said it was clear that opposition parties had capitalised on the weaknesses related to Zuma and the president’s stance on issues.
“It’s no secret that the opposition parties ran their election campaigns not on local issues but on national issues, especially the clumsy manner with which the ANC handled the Nkandla matter, for instance, and other things. The leadership of the ANC and the leader of the ANC need to acknowledge there are presidential issues, like Nkandla and throwaway remarks about clever blacks which were unwise, and (these) have constituted a liability for the ANC and its alliance.
“This central meeting was preceded by a meeting of the political bureau and, at that level, the officials are disappointed by the nature of the position taken by the NEC, less about what was said but more about what was not said…
“This is against the background that for many years now the ANC has very accurately identified what the problems are, which include the growing gap between the mass base and the political elite within the ANC, and the problems of corruption, gate-keeping and manipulation of membership lists,” said Cronin.
The party would discuss the recent call for an early conference, but warned it would only support such a call on the principle of “refreshing” the ANC’s leadership and dealing with core challenges facing the party.
“If it is to be a worthwhile conference it needs to unify the ANC, but unifying it on a principle basis and not just unify it on the basis of covering up differences and negotiations between factions or a shoot-out between factions,” Cronin added.