Johannesburg - ANC structures and alliance partners have taken a dim view of the ANC Youth League’s call for an early leadership conference following the ANC’s poor performance in the key metros during the municipal elections.
On Tuesday, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the call was “not a bad idea” and that the structures of the party were currently discussing it.
This came after the ANCYL asked for the early conference where a new leadership of the ANC would be elected to take it forward.
The youth league said the current leadership was no longer capable of helping the ANC overcome its slump.
But on Wednesday, the ANC in North West, one of the provinces that is part of the so-called premier league faction aligned to President Jacob Zuma, urged the young lions to hold back on their proposal.
“The decision by the national executive committee (NEC) not to hold an early conference must be supported,” said ANC North West deputy provincial secretary Susan Dantjie.
“What we need is to focus our structures on policy development and implementation issues, rebranding and renewal as part of unity of purpose,” she said.
Dantjie said the NEC should finish its term and Zuma should remain in his position until 2019.
She said the NEC had done an assessment of the elections and took collective respon-sibility.
Meokgo Matuba, secretary-general of the ANC Women’s League, said they had no position to make on the calls for an early conference to elect new leadership.
However, she said the women’s league wanted the ANC to rebuild its structures and reorganise and re-energise them so that when the party went to conference, it was united.
“It’s not the time to blame and point fingers,” she said, “but to rebuild, and as the women’s league, we are already on the ground doing exactly that.”
ANC alliance partner, the SA Communist Party, is set to hold its central committee meeting this weekend for the first time since the elections.
Party spokesman Alex Mashilo said the call for an early conference would be discussed at the meeting.
He said the party would take stock of the results and analyse them in detail, together with the latest developments.
Mashilo said the ANC’s declining performance in the municipal elections must be seen as a clarion call to the party to achieve unity both in thinking and action.
“The success of the ANC in the history of the Struggle does not depend on the organisation alone, but on the array of other political organisations, including the SACP.
“It also depends on the unity of people broadly on the ground,” he said.
“Any move that is counterproductive will make matters worse.”
Another tripartite alliance ally, Cosatu, was set to hold a post-central executive committee meeting briefing on Thursday, where it was expected to pronounce on the issue.
Thabiso Thakali
@thabiso_tk
The Star