Provincial leaders want to debate Mantashe’s report on ‘sick ANC’
ANC provincial chairmen want party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe’s report debated because they agree with his diagnosis that the party is sick and needs healing.
Mantashe presented the diagnostic report, blaming President Jacob Zuma for ANC problems, at a plenary at the ANC policy conference in Nasrec on Friday.
Limpopo premier and ANC chairman Stanley Mathabatha said the report called on the governing party to do self-introspection.
“It is a good and objective report,” Mathabatha said.
His Mpumalanga counterpart, David Mabuza, said: “This is the only moment when we can look at ourselves and say we are bad here and we must correct [that].”
ANC provinces continued to differ sharply yesterday on “white monopoly capital”, which Mathabatha said was natural in the ANC.
“You will have people saying there is ‘white monopoly capital’ and others saying there is none,” he said.
But Mabuza warned of a revolution if the economy continued to remain in the hands of whites.
“The economy is concentrated in the hands of a few,” he said.
“That is why the majority of the people are poor. We are saying open [up] and allow more and more people to participate.
“In the manner that things are continuing, you are just going into another revolution because people cannot remain poor.
“They will fight and they will destroy what we have.”
The ANC in Mpumalanga is pushing for the establishment of an independent land valuer, saying the government continued to pay exorbitant prices for land.
Mabuza said the high prices slowed the transfer of land back to “the rightful owners”.
KwaZulu-Natal party leader Sihle Zikalala said the ANC needed to build a strong state biased in favour of the working class and Africans to break the monopoly.
Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile said Mantashe’s report was a base from which delegates could confront ANC problems.
“We need to go out and address the issues raised by the people.
“We need to win back the confidence of South Africans.”
A GROUP of disenchanted ANC stalwarts and veterans have lashed out at President Jacob Zuma for abusing the organisation’s policy conference to attack them, based on what they say is false information.
“The stalwarts and veterans are perplexed by the bizarre and dishonest statements by the president,” the group said.
“We are accused of having stated with respect to branches ‘they said they don’t think the quality of discussions here is at their level, they need serious discussion. These are the people who claim they have values and understanding of the ANC’.
“We totally reject these assertions by the president and believe that he knows that what they told delegates to the conference‚ and through the media‚ the South African public at large‚ about the stalwarts and veterans‚ is patently untrue.
“He will not be able to produce a shred of evidence to support the shameful statements.”
The group‚ which includes all of the remaining members of those imprisoned after the Rivonia Treason Trial‚ said it was also disappointed by statements accorded to the secretary-general “in that he was in all the delegations and meetings with the stalwarts and veterans and knows better our views, which views and feelings were never accurately communicated to the NEC.
“We would like to believe that we speak on behalf of all members of the ANC who reject corruption, want to see the realisation of our potential as a nation‚ and the elimination of poverty and the unacceptable levels of inequality.
“Our objective is to continue to serve all the people of South Africa and ensure the historical values and principles of the ANC are restored.