‘Feasting on fruits of office tripped ANC’
| New DA mayors take charge in three major metros as the August 3 political earthquake makes itself felt
FORMER president Kgalema Motlanthe has told ANC supporters they have nothing to worry about if the party loses because this does not mean the country will plunge back into turmoil.
Motlanthe — who also served as ANC deputy president until December 2012, when he challenged President Jacob Zuma for the party’s leadership — endorsed the outcomes of the local government elections as reflective of “a population which is beginning to embrace a variety of ideas”.
His remarks, made in Durban on Friday, came as ANC supporters were still licking their wounds after an election in which the party lost control of metros in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.
Some ANC diehards have characterised the losses as a setback for “transformation”, saying DA-led councils may “reverse the gains of democracy”.
But Motlanthe said the country’s institutions were strong enough to ensure political stability.
“We should not be worried by the ANC losing power. We should not worry because there are strong democratic institutions in place.
“It [the country] will not end up in a situation of instability, for we have built these strong institutions of democracy,” Motlanthe said.
He also suggested that the ANC’s decline was bound to happen.
For the ANC, he said, the results showed that “we cannot leave the attainment of freedom in its fullest expression to the future while we feast on the fruits of incumbency. . . People cannot be addressed with slogans and jargon, but require action and a realisation of a future promised so many years ago.”
ANC Gauteng chairman Paul Mashatile and his executive committee could be among the first casualties of the party’s dismal performance at the polls.
President Jacob Zuma’s supporters in the ANC are gunning for Mashatile, directly blaming him for the party’s loss of its absolute majorities in three metros in the province.
They are calling for Luthuli House to sack Mashatile as provincial chairman and for his provincial executive committee to be disbanded.
Mashatile and his executive have been Zuma’s most vocal critics in the ANC and publicly called on him to resign as head of state after the Constitutional Court ruled that he had violated his oath of office on Nkandla.
The Sunday Times has learnt that at last weekend’s ANC national executive committee meeting, former Gauteng MEC Humphrey Mmemezi, one of Zuma’s staunchest backers, led calls for the “ill-disciplined” Gauteng leadership structure to be disbanded.
Mmemezi is said to have been supported by Minister of Water Affairs and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane, a former Gauteng premier.
Yesterday, the ANC Youth League, which is known for its support of Zuma, told the Sunday Times that it backed moves to have the Gauteng leadership sacked as they had shown contempt for Luthuli House.
“If the solution is that you disband the structure . . . let that be done, because what we’ve witnessed in Gauteng is that its leadership started the campaign by complaining,” youth league spokesman Mlondi Mkhize said.
“Subsequently they’ve been pointing out too many internal matters at a time when everyone focused on elections.”
Mkhize also said the youth league was worried about Mashatile’s relationship with EFF leader Julius Malema, who said this week that his party would probably have struck a coalition agreement with the ANC had its negotiations team been led by the Gauteng chairman.
“We think that it’s not a coincidence that such statements were made by the EFF,” Mkhize said. “Effectively it says that the NEC is rendered useless and the provincial executive committee of Gauteng is much more important. That can’t be correct.”
But ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said calls for Mashatile and his team to be axed were motivated by “factionalism” as Gauteng was not the only province that did badly at the polls.
“It is premature for comrades to try and get provinces to be scapegoats. There is no province that did well,” he said.
Mashatile could not be reached for comment and his spokesman, Nkenke Kekana, said he would “not entertain rumours by enemies of the ANC”.
At the NEC meeting Mmemezi was the first person to call for “repercussions for the ill-discipline” shown by the ANC Gauteng leadership.
The “ill-discipline” charge relates to claims that Gauteng initially refused to use Zuma T-shirts as part of the campaign and that the provincial structure did not give Zuma enough support when he canvassed voters in the province.
According to NEC members who did not want to be named, Mmemezi told the meeting that Gauteng leaders have “continually demonised the president”, adding that it was unacceptable for them to blame e-tolls for the poor performance at the polls.
Mmemezi on Friday refused to comment, saying NEC discussions were confidential.
The ANC leadership in the province apparently had research which suggested that using Zuma as the face of the campaign would cost the party votes. But they were overruled by Luthuli House, which rolled out a campaign with Zuma at the helm.
While Zuma’s allies have their knives out for Mashatile, some in the ANC have argued that disbanding the Gauteng leadership would further weaken the party, as happened with the dissolution of the Nelson Mandela Bay leadership.
It is premature for comrades to try and get provinces to be scapegoats