THE ANC's national conference in Mangaung must bring change, trade union federation Cosatu said yesterday.
"The country is facing a multiple crisis," said Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, calling for a "Lula moment" in South Africa.
He was referring to the turnaround in Brazilian politics engineered by the country's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
South Africa needed change in three core areas to tackle poverty, unemployment and inequality, Vavi said.
This comprised structural change in the economy, decisive change in the state, and radical change and renewal in the ruling alliance to reassert a culture of service and accountability.
The politics of principle were being replaced by "a politics based on narrow ambition and accumulation", Vavi said.
"There is a poisoned atmosphere of divisions, and fast-moving cliques and cabals," he said.
The ANC policy conference earlier this year recognised that the erosion of the ANC's core values threatened its continued existence.
But Vavi said more urgent steps should be taken to protect the ANC's image and the party needed to prevent abuse of power or office for private gain or factional interests.
Public representatives had to choose whether they would be people's representatives living within the means of their salaries, or whether they would be businessmen, said Vavi.
He called for strict rules on tenders to discourage potential fraud.
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