Viwe Sidali
As the African National Congress (ANC) prepares to sit its National General Council in Gauteng, we would like to call on everyone attending the NGC to remember the 1985 letter written by our late Tata Nelson Mandela while in prison to the Kabwe Consultative Conference, where he described unity within the ANC as the bedrock on which the organisation was founded.
He further called for unity within the organisation to be phenomenal, and leadership divisions or interests to come last. In my capacity as a leader of this glorious movement, I call on delegates and national leaders to ensure that corruption is decisively dealt with for the sake of our organisation’s reputation, and to advance its vision of “A better life for all”.
I am also calling on the delegates to harshly deal with gatekeeping and growth membership manipulation within this glorious movement. Buffalo City ANC Regional Executive Committee must be on the agenda.
The back-dating of membership forms at FNB and the ghost memberships must be harshly dealt with. ANC Buffalo City metro leadership is the one behind the collapse of this organisation by doing foreign things such as membership back-dating. I call on the NGC to ensure that factionalism within the ANC should now be declared a sin. It must be resolved that anyone found advancing factionalism must be shown the door as the ANC members need to love each other and rebuild comradeship. It is bad, and should be taboo, to see members hating each other and even resolving to not support one another.
I’m also calling on the delegates to endorse a strategic plan of reviving our branches. Going back to the letter Tata Mandela wrote will refresh our minds and advance our vision and unity. It’s high time the ANC showed no mercy to thieves or corruption. The NGC must also visit the ANC’s working relations plan with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to ensure its broader participation. The collapse of NGOs is affecting the movement and our programmes. Reviving the relations with progressive NGOs will rebuild our organisation. Those opposition parties trying to disturb this organisation will definitely fail if our relations are renewed with NGOs. This NGC is the only congress to re-build our ANC.
The leadership issues of 2017 must be crushed. Factionalism must be crushed. Any signals of 2017 leadership issues will develop a trend of disruption. The ANC has Jacob Zuma as president and Cyril Ramaphosa as deputy president, so we need not shift our focus. Anyone discussing 2017 leadership issues is sent to kill this organisation. I’m calling for unity within the movement.
It’s now time to be united more than ever and remove those who don’t want unity as they are sent to destroy the ANC from within. The 2016 local government elections are approaching and our organisation is under severe attack, mostly in Buffalo City Metro, Nelson Mandela Metro, Ekurhuleni Metro, Tshwane Metro and Cape Town. The intervention in Buffalo City Metro must be non-negotiable.
The Buffalo City regional leadership must be disbanded, and by doing so, the ANC will be building unity within that baby metro. The corruption by certain leaders must not be embraced. Everyone before the courts of law for corruption-related cases must step aside for the love of the organisation. This NGC must reiterate that no one is above the ANC. Those in leadership must stop abusing their positions, and branches must be key. “Back to basics” is fundamental.
I’m soberly appealing to this NGC as the decision-making body between conferences to disband the Buffalo City region, reinforce the Nelson Mandela Metro RTT, adopt a clear programme of assisting student organisations, rebuild unity within the alliance and rebuild strategic relations with NGOs.
This NGC comes at a time when there is a growth of forces of darkness within the ANC. Employment of municipal managers and heads of department must be also dealt with by this NGC. We need municipal managers and HoDs who are well equipped and have the ANC vision at heart, which is “A better life for all”.
We must not be sorry in employing qualified ANC people in those strategic governmental positions. Some municipal managers and HoDs advance opposition parties’ visions, and this is deeply happening in Eastern Cape. We need show no mercy in dealing with governance as guided by the “better life for all” policy documents and NDP. I wish the NGC all the best, and with no doubt that unity must be a song of the conference.
l Sidali is an ANC member, former ANCYL branch chair & REC