Johannesburg - ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has warned that the use of money in the governing party’s internal leadership elections will affect the quality of its leaders.
The mineral resources and energy minister called for the ANC and its tripartite alliance partners to have an honest discussion about the quality of leaders they elect for various structures.
“Take, for instance, the ANC process of selecting leadership which is predominantly driven by ‘money’ instead of the quality of leadership we need to lead the ANC. In that space, where we are selling the organisation to the highest bidder, pettiness becomes practice,” wrote Mantashe in the latest edition of ANC Today, the party’s weekly newsletter.
He further warned that the use of money will accelerate the decline of the ANC. According to Mantashe, this will result in a leadership that is not principled but “has resources to buy the revolution”.
”To me, this is the biggest threat facing the organisation and the alliance. As we select leadership for the ANC and the alliance, we must ask the question, what value will that individual add to the collective?”
President Cyril Ramaphosa, of who Mantashe is a key ally, has been accused by his opponents of running a multi-million rand campaign to become ANC leader in 2017. In addition, Mantashe said the ANC and the alliance are at a critical point where its support is in decline.
”We are faced with challenges of either accelerating the decline or arresting the decline,” he added.
Mantashe cautioned against the adoption of the American style of politics where party members think that the ANC is about the president.
“Ours is about leadership and not an individual leader. We must ensure that there is a generation mix in our leadership structures. To do this, we must select, and elect leaders based on their strengths that will help us in rebuilding the ANC and ensure that it remains a governing party beyond 2024,” he said.
Mantashe also weighed in on the push for the SACP to contest the 2024 national and provincial elections. At its national congress last week, the Young Communist League backed the SACP’s decision to contest the 2024 elections.
Cosatu’s biggest affiliate, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), this week became the latest alliance formation to support the SACP running in the next polls.
Nehawu’s central executive committee meeting agreed to roll out a programme for engagement and mobilising support from its members on the decision of the SACP to contest elections in 2024. However, Mantashe appears unconvinced by the SACP’s move.
“A communist party that breaks away from the ANC is behaving the same as COPE, which is fishing in the same pond as the ANC, which will weaken the ANC,” he warned, referring to the group of leaders who broke away from the ANC after the 2007 national conference.
In addition, Mantashe described the much talked about standing alone of the SACP independent of the ANC as a sign of the weakening of the relationship between the two organisations and that the elders in the alliance have accepted the principle that communists are not communist factions of the ANC.
”They (communists) must be loyal to the programme of the ANC. That is the basis of communists standing for elections for ANC positions, not on the basis of communist factions supporting them but on the basis of ANC members having confidence in them,” he stated.
Mantashe said the strategy of opting out of the alliance when there is pressure on the ANC is wrong.
“As we move towards the 2024 elections, the focus must be on renewal and unity of the ANC as a contesting party,” he added.
Mantashe has observed that the younger the alliance’s leadership, the weaker the relationships become.