MANY ANC structures are in poor state, and engaged in self-destructive internal organisational conflicts fueled by factionalism. And this instead of furthering the aspirations of communities who have elected them to serve.
This was the admission by treasurer-general Paul Mashatile when he opened the KZN elective conference late on Friday night at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban.
Mashatile said due to these internal battles, the party had lost touch with its grassroots support and this led to its poor performance at the recent local elections.
“Comrades, we have also committed ourselves to dealing decisively with the reality that many structures are in a poor state. Many are focused on internal organisational conflicts, factionalism and furthering the self-interest of individual leaders rather than aspirations of communities they are meant to serve,” he said.
“This has created space for our, ideological opponents to gain ground in our traditional strong holds and more substantively, to erode the democratic gains we made since 1994. This is characteristic of the social distance that has emerged between our movement and the people.”
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He added that the party could take comfort from the fact its supporters had not voted for opposition parties.
Mashatile was confident that the party could still win majority in the 2024 national elections despite many warnings by leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, that if it didn’t unite, it would lose power.
He emphasised the importance of uniting the party and returning it to its historic and progressive past. He said the road to unity would not be easy.
“There will be temporary set-backs. There will be pushbacks, even from within our ranks. But we must soldier on. It is not an exaggeration that our movement finds itself in a challenging period where our values are being eroded and undermined. This is also a period in which the level of trust in our leaders, movement and democratic institutions we have built is diminishing,” he said.
Mashatile added that they were facing a real possibility of losing the moral high ground, and position as the trusted leader of society.
“We must make it our mission to disappoint those that have already written the ANC’s obituary for 2024. Our task is not only to re-energise our base, but also to reach out to all the people of South Africa. We must not only visit communities during elections. Neither should we seek to resolve the problems of the people at the time of elections. We must be proactive. We must maintain a permanent presence in and among our communities. We must speak the language of the people,” he said.
