Cape Town – Former President Thabo Mbeki has bemoaned the loss of support for the ANC in the local government elections, saying the party had been shedding support in the previous national and local government polls.
Mbeki said the ANC had been on the decline because of poor membership quality and people who join it for personal interests, and not what it stands for.
The ANC lost the three key Gauteng metros of Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane.
It lost other municipalities in various provinces.
He said this warning was issued many years ago in successive conferences from 1997 up to 2017.
He called on the party to start with the renewal process to prevent further decline in support.
Mbeki, who was delivering the Chief Albert Luthuli memorial lecture on Friday, said without the renewal process the ANC would not be able to deal with the scourge of corruption.
The high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment in the country faced the ruling party.
Mbeki said the issue of loss of support for the ANC was a serious matter.
This could be seen in the previous elections how support had dropped both at national and local elections.
“With regard to the National Assembly Elections, the ANC got 69.69% of the votes in 2004; in 2009 65.90%; in 2014 62.15%; and in 2019 57.50%. This means that the ANC lost 12.19% of national electoral support during the four national elections during the period 2004 to 2019 inclusive. Thus, on average it lost 3% support in each election.
“Concerning the Local Government Elections, the ANC took 66.3% of the vote in 2006; 62% in 2011; 55.65% in 2016; and 47.52% in 2021. This means that the ANC lost 18.8% of local electoral support during the four local government elections during the period 2006 to 2021 inclusive. This means that on average it lost 4.7% support in each election,” said Mbeki.
“The continuous degradation in the quality of the membership of the ANC emphasised at all ANC conferences for the two decades between 1997 and 2017 contributed directly to this sustained loss of electoral support by the ANC,” he said.
POLITICAL BUREAU