The ANC deserved to lose a recent by-election after fielding "a drunkard", according to Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
And ruling party secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has accused alliance partners of becoming a source of irritation worse than the opposition.
In an interview with The Sunday Independent on Friday, Motlanthe, who is also the ANC's deputy president, warned against mismanaged deployment, saying the ruling party could ill afford to field candidates who were not wanted by the people. He cited the ANC's loss of a ward in Tembisa as a wake-up call for the ruling party.
"The ANC lost a by-election to COPE because the... candidate of the ANC was known to the community as a drunkard," he said.
Continues Below ↓
"The ANC got the message loud and clear - this is what the community told them, and they disregarded it and the community then did not vote... they simply stayed at home and the ANC lost. If people in leadership of the branch manipulate processes, the community must be able to punish them, that's how they will correct it."
Motlanthe's frank criticism of his own party comes in the wake of a series of violent protests against poor service delivery.
The ANC is anxious about its performance in the 2011 local polls given the poor state of most of its municipalities, some dysfunctional provinces, tender corruption and tensions in the tripartite alliance over policy and the battle for the control of the organisation.
The ANC is in the grip of another succession battle: Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula is expected to challenge Mantashe for the position of secretary-general at the party's 2012 elective conference.
Motlanthe's position is also not overly secure, with some saying ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa could make a bid for the ANC deputy presidency.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
