‘SOME ANC LEADERS THRIVE ON DIVISIONS’
MANTASHE EMPHASISES ANC UNITY
SOME in the ANC are attracted to chaos and divisions.
This was said by secretary-general Gwede Mantashe yesterday during round table discussions with the media in Johannesburg.
He said the task of the ANC currently was to bring unity to the organisation and that those flying succession lists on who should succeed President Jacob Zuma and his leadership collective meant to distract the organisation.
“Many thrive better when the ANC is chaotic and divided. There will be people who are attracted to thrive in chaos,” he said.
“Those people must be pushed to the peripheral and play according to the rules of the organisation, otherwise [it] will cease to be an organisation.”
Mantashe was responding to the distribution of a list with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to succeed Zuma, while the ANC Women’s League has come out in support of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Mantashe said the ANC leadership would not speak to the ANCWL about its pronouncement, but the league should accept it had been corrected and it should stick to the national executive committee decision that the leadership question would be opened later in the year. He also quashed calls that it was a tradition the ANC deputy president should succeed Zuma.
“You can’t create a tradition that does not exist, but when we elect the deputy president we should have succession in mind.
“Once you have a deputy president ... and elect someone else [to be president], we must ask difficult questions. Is this deputy not competent enough to be the successor, that belongs to the the debate than the tradition?”
Mantashe said the branches would decide later as they were the final arbiter.
The ANC is expected to hold its elective conference in December, and Mantashe refused to reveal when they would open nominations.
“We are not going to focus on that ... let’s engage on the principles.”
He said once the nomination process is opened, the branches would discuss names and the track records.
“They should ask what has been his performance, has he executed his task well [in the last five years]. In that we will come out with a better NEC.”