Declining ANC in self-made crisis, Ntshona says:

THE ANC is in a crisis of its own making, with branches engulfed in petty squabbles and the party bleeding members in Nelson Mandela Bay.

In a frank assessment of its descent from power in the metro, the ANC gave a scathing overview of the state of the organisation and how it planned to claw its way back into power.

The organisational report, delivered by former regional task team (RTT) coordinator Beza Ntshona at the weekend’s regional elective conference, said a thorough and proper introspection was needed if the ANC wanted to win back the confidence of the electorate.

“Comrades, the ANC is in a crisis of our own making. We know what we have not done right, we just need to correct that,” Ntshona said in the report.

“The people who have been voting for us believed that we are arrogant – we have no time for them and we don’t want to listen.

“The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay has been experiencing a steady decline for the past few years.

“The most central issue, among others, has been membership that has not reached 20 000. We are below 12 000, which is a major challenge for the organisation that was voted [for] by 150 000 people.

“Our branches are engulfed by a myriad of challenges – political, organisational, petty squabbles and personal differences.

“We came to this regional conference bleeding due to our own goals.”

Ntshona said when President Jacob Zuma appointed a regional task team in 2015 to help rebuild the ANC – after the previous regional executive committee was disbanded – it was not a full complement.

The situation was exacerbated by some of the members not being able to attend crucial meetings to discuss the plan for the August 3 local government elections.

Ntshona said some regional task team members had simply vanished, while others never made themselves available for organisational work.

Other members only enjoyed the limelight, with no interest in RTT work and organisational activities.

“The work of the RTT was solely reliant on seven RTT members, who were consistent and always available to carry out organisational activities,” his report said.

Referring to the branches, Ntshona said they were generally very weak and were not playing their constitutional roles.

“Branches have been turned into battlegrounds for either factionalism or individual comrades’ self-enrichment,” he said.

“They have been seized by petty squabbles and peripheral issues.

“There are very few branches that worked well and convened meetings of the [branch executive committees] and members’ meeting with a clear programme.”

He listed the problem branches as those in wards 14, 27, 28, 33, 36, 41, 47, 54, 55 and 60.

On what had gone wrong with the elections, Ntshona said that the campaigning started a year later compared with other political parties and, in some instances, the candidate selection processes had been deliberately manipulated by the screening committees.

There were also too many confusing election strategies, which were fixed too late, and the ANC only ran a fully fledged campaign over the 20 days before the elections.

He recommended that branches undergo a thorough audit and that the party ensures a credible process is adopted to administer membership figures.

Ntshona said the party required men and women with a conscience and zeal to build and strengthen the organisation.

“Our five years’ imprisonment term has no parole,” he said.

“It’s an opportunity to correct all mistakes frankly and honestly.

“We can’t afford to be enemies of ourselves. We must only have two camps – the enemy camp and the people’s camp.”

The conference resolved yesterday to build a strong, united ANC and to root out corruption, factionalism, bullying of members and gatekeeping.