By Andisiwe Makinana
Political Writer
The race by party officials and members to hold positions of authority and to make money are the ANC's new enemies - and those enemies are more dangerous than apartheid, says President Jacob Zuma.
He was addressing the ANC's provincial general council (PGC) in Mitchell's Plain yesterday... a meeting of all ANC branches in the province.
He used the opportunity to lambaste party members for being overly concerned about positions of authority and money, calling these the twins that were more dangerous than the previous enemy. But, he said, unlike the previous enemy, apartheid, which the ANC fought and defeated in unity, the new issues divided the party.
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Yesterday was Zuma's first address to an ANC provincial meeting since he was elected party president in Polokwane in December 2007.
He lashed out at ANC members, saying there were comrades who were prepared to destroy the organisation so that they could occupy a certain position of authority.
He said character assassination, gossip and politicians who looked forward to reading in newspapers about their comrades were common in the ANC: "It's a sickness."
Zuma said while some ANC members were grappling with (issues of) the PGC at yesterday's meeting, others were focused on the next ANC provincial conference.
The provincial conference runs from April 2 to 4 next year and elects the new ANC provincial leadership.
It is understood that lobbying and canvassing for the new leadership has already begun.
Zuma said that while at yesterday's meeting ANC members were expected to deal with the political landscape of the province and provide solutions to problems, many were only worried about next year's provincial conference.
"That is the indication of a sick organisation."
Zuma said provincial ANC members should be dealing with the status of the organisation, identifying problems, examining whether the organisation had been growing since the last PGC, looking at its weaknesses and the causes and whether the political resolutions of the last PGC had worked.
"You know, in the Western Cape, for a number of years, you have not been able to handle your matters. At what point will this province say: We are dealing with matters of the ANC, not the ANC that belongs to other people? At what point shall you say, we are working on the health of the organisation?"
He said ANC headquarters had decided to establish a provincial task team because "comrades in the Western Cape had failed over this period".
Meanwhile, in the organisational report which was presented to the meeting, task team coordinator Shaun Byneveldt described the state of the ANC in the Western Cape as weak. "All preliminary indications point to this."
The report said organisational unity and coherence remained a challenge, while political education was a critical area in rebuilding and uniting the ANC.
Local government was a problem for the ANC in the province as tensions and disagreements were often found among comrades at a local government level, it said.
"This generally relates to matters ranging from the allocation of positions in councils, employment opportunities, to the allocation of tenders and projects."
Byneveldt warned that "another savagely contested provincial conference will be disastrous. The time to act is now."
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Argus on October 19, 2009
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