Former president Kgalema Motlanthe told Business Day that he would not attend the ANC’s elective conference in December because the event was increasingly becoming vulnerable to violations of the party’s internal democracy.
Motlanthe was speaking on the sidelines of his lecture to the University of Stellenbosch Business School on Friday evening.
His remarks come at a time of unprecedented pessimism over the standard of leadership in the ANC and the government and coincided with those of ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa, who, in an open letter, lamented that the ANC had lost its way.
Motlanthe, a former ANC deputy president and secretary-general, said branches should take the lead in the conference delegations, followed by the various leagues. But the prevalence of "bogus branches and bogus members" made it hard for the conference to secure a faultless process.
"Once all of those processes and requirements are disregarded and delegates to conference are not elected by members but handpicked by leaders on the basis of perceived support, it defeats the purpose of the majority of delegates being delegates from branches."
Motlanthe said that because he did not trust the process by which the conference would elect its new leadership, he would also not be endorsing any of the hopeful candidates.
"Because the processes are flawed it’s really pointless to even hope that the outcomes of such flawed processes would be reflective of the collective views of the membership.
"It can produce any outcome, so it would be difficult to attach or invest in any hope in the process," he said.
The front-runners for the party presidency are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC MP Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, President Jacob Zuma’s former wife.
Motlanthe told reporters that continuing to refer to the ANC, the South African Communist Party and Cosatu as an alliance was a "misnomer" as there was no independence among the organisations and an increasing lack of consultation.
He said the increasing referral of conferences at provincial and regional level to the courts was worrying.
He said that going into the final year before the 2019 general election, the ANC ran the huge risk of ending up on the opposition benches in Parliament if it failed to regain public and investor confidence.
During his address to the business school, Motlanthe said "every leader must be held accountable, every citizen has a role to play as well as a responsibility to honour the principles and values of democracy".
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