The ANC is a “self-absorbed organisation” that is at war with itself, the outgoing premier of Gauteng province, David Makhura, said on Friday.
Makhura, who is also the outgoing ANC Gauteng provincial chair, said the party focused on things that do not matter. “These are fundamental issues we must confront. We must not lie to ourselves, we disappointed people, the core base of the ANC, the people in our townships,” he said.
He was delivering the chairperson’s report at the ANC Gauteng provincial conference in Benoni, east of Johannesburg.
The province is dogged by service delivery challenges, with basic services such as housing, clinics, schools and water and electricity supply still scant.
“We are here to seek policy solutions to our problems ... I have no doubt the conference will emerge with a leadership that will move the province to the next level. It [conference] is going to be a festival of ideas, not a festival of chairs and insults,” Makhura said.
“We don’t want to regress, comrades, if we do, in 2024 we will be gone.”
The ANC is dogged by operational, administrative and financial problems which have led to it failing to pay its staff for months. It lost control of the crucial Gauteng metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane to DA-led coalitions during the 2021 municipal election after its national electoral support fell below the 50% mark for the first time since 1994.
The governing party is riddled with factionalism and a number of its senior leaders have been implicated in corruption by chief justice Raymond Zondo, chair of the commission of inquiry into state capture.
The ANC Gauteng conference is expected to elect a new provincial leadership, with co-operative governance and human settlements MEC Lebogang Maile and his education counterpart Panyaza Lesufi, expected to battle it out for the influential provincial chairperson position.
Whoever is elected provincial chair could become the next Gauteng premier and take charge of SA’s economic powerhouse, which contributes about 35% to GDP.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will be keenly awaiting the results of the provincial conference. He is depending on whoever wins the contest to support him as he bids for a second term as ANC president in December.
The Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Northern Cape have already indicated their support for Ramaphosa’s re-election at their respective conferences.
The ANC’s electoral support has been declining in the province over the years, to 36.06% during the 2021 municipal elections from 45.84% and 59.66% during the 2016 and 2011 municipal elections respectively.
“We must do some soul-searching to turn around the negative perceptions and views, especially among people who used to vote the ANC,” Makhura said.
“We can only regain public support if the ANC can rise to the occasion. We must defocus the ANC away from preoccupation with self-interest and factionalism,” Makhura said.
“We must cleanse the ANC of a rent seeking mentality of greed. We must rid the ANC of greed and survival of the fittest. We have demons, we must get rid of these demons that continue to kill our own movement.”
His views echoed those of the party's national chair, mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe, who told delegates attending the organisation’s Eastern Cape conference that the governing party had become “arrogant”, “out of touch with society”, and dogged by a “trust deficit”.
“We don’t agree with those who think the ANC is finished. Even with all the things we have said, this conference is a conference of renewal. It’s a conference about regaining and repositioning the organisation to connect with its support base,” Makhura said.
Makhura said the leadership that would be elected at the conference, which ends on Sunday, should focus on organisational renewal and confront issues pertaining to the “untransformed economy”.
“If the ANC does not do so, this untransformed economy will be like a beast that will eat all of us, one by one,” he said on Friday.
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