Johannesburg – The ANC stalwarts who have been calling for a national consultative conference to discuss challenges facing the movement will meet with the party’s top six officials in Joburg on Monday to discuss the modalities of the much-anticipated conference.
The meeting, to be attended by ANC president Jacob Zuma and his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, national chairperson Baleka Mbete and secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, among others, will be held at the party’s headquarters in Luthuli House.
The stalwarts had been calling for a consultative conference to discuss the challenges dogging Africa’s oldest former liberation movement, which include factionalism, corruption, gatekeeping, and the manipulation of candidates’ lists, among others.
Zuma had called on party members to fight the ills, saying they could no longer continue with the controversial practices, which are believed to have cost the ANC support during last year’s watershed municipal elections.
Addressing thousands of party supporters and members during the January 8 statement to mark the ANC’s 105th birthday celebrations at Sowetorecently, Zuma said they had heard the message the electorate delivered during the local government elections in August.
The party lost the three crucial metros of the capital city Tshwane, Joburg and Nelson Mandela Bay, and its national support fell from 62 percent to 54 percent.
Last week, the ANC stalwarts called on the party to review the criteria for the selection of party candidates, in order for the party to redeem itself and be able to self-correct. This as the race for the next ANC leader hots up.
Zuma is expected to step down as ANC president in December, and AU Commission chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Ramaphosa and Mbete, have also expressed interest in succeeding Zuma as leader of Africa’s most industrialised nation.
The president seemed to endorse Dlamini-Zuma’s bid last week when he told millions of listeners of three SABC radio stations that the party and county was ready for a “woman president”.
He noted that it was not the policy or accepted tradition of the ANC that the deputy succeeded the president when the latter stepped down, saying it was merely the “accident of history” that this had happened in the past.
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