Dogged by corruption, factionalism, and vote buying within its ranks, the ANC wants to force its members to disclose their sources of wealth and those campaigning for positions to declare their funders.
These were some of the proposals tabled at the ANC's National Policy Conference under way at Nasrec, Johannesburg.
The ruling party admitted that it is faced with a litany of problems including factionalism, bulk buying of membership, and battles over the control of resources.
ANC national executive committee member Fikile Mbalula presented a document outlining some of the radical changes that the party plans to undertake as part of the renewal strategy flowing from growing concerns that the party is bleeding support.
Proposals include the creation of a “Revolutionary Electoral Council”, a body that will screen and interview members for eligibility before they can even stand for positions, opening up the campaign process and giving more powers to the integrity commission of the party.
The electoral council will be formed by members of the party not interested in any of the positions, but not necessarily its veterans.
Mbalula said this is meant to deal with factionalism in the ANC, which in some cases had led to undeserving candidates making it to the party’s top leadership by virtue of them having the support of the strongest faction at that point.
“The council will help us exorcise the tendency of factionalism.
“We don’t want candidates who are affirmed by factions,” Mbalula said on the sidelines of day three of the six-day conference.
Read more here: #ANCNPC: 'MPs who vote against Zuma committing political suicide'
He said the council will evaluate members running for positions using the Eye of the Needle, the ANC’s guideline on choosing leaders.
Once they pass the test, only then will the names be referred back to the party's leadership structures.
On members having to declare wealth, Mbalula said this was to deal with the issue of members having ill-gotten wealth but was not necessarily to bar members from being engaged in business.
“We cannot say arrest and investigate all those who have questionable wealth but members of the ANC are exempt from that. We must be able to give an account of the personal wealth of individuals. For example, in Parliament we declare everything. The only thing left is to declare concubines if you have got concubines,” he said.
“The ANC nomination and election processes must be reviewed to allow for open contestation,” Mbalula said, adding that doing so would prevent clandestine campaigning and patronage being dispensed in exchange for votes.
The party is also toying with the idea of strengthening the functions of its integrity commission by giving it powers to subpoena members implicated in wrongdoing.
The commission was established in 2013 with a sole mandate of dealing with allegations of improper conduct against ANC members and deployees of the state.
Mbalula said new powers for this commission would have to be written into the ANC as soon as possible.
The first two days of the conference have been dedicated to self-introspection by the 3 000 delegates.
Political analyst Lukhona Mnguni said the proposals signalled an admission that “something is going very wrong and it has the potential to collapse the organisation”. Thus the proposals were an attempt to rescue the ANC.
“They might keep a brave face but the loss of power (in the metros) has shaken them. They know the significance of what it would mean for the ANC to lose Gauteng”.
He said that while there seemed to be a greater appetite to deal with issues like corruption, factionalism and to improve the type of leaders the ANC has, the implementation of such proposals will depend largely on the type of ANC leadership that emerges at the party’s elective conference in December.
Mnguni said for it to deal effectively with factionalism, the ANC will have to consider allowing all members to vote for leaders rather than placing this responsibility in the hands of a few delegates.
“The number that votes is very small and easy to manipulate but you cannot manipulate all 700 000 members”.
On members having to declare their sources of wealth Mnguni said “this is the issue of lifestyle audits coming in a different language”.
He said there was now an appreciation within ANC ranks that crass materialism is largely to blame for the decline of the ANC.