ANC must walk the talk if it’s to meet challenges

The Herald Editorial: If, as appears to be the case, President Jacob Zuma has emerged from the ANC’s national general council (NGC) more confident regarding the strength of his position, that can only be good for the country as a whole... as The ruling party has spent too much time over the past five years obsessed with its internal struggles that inevitably led to a neglect of the mandate on which it was elected.

Zuma’s statement at a post-NGC press conference yesterday suggests he believes that period in the ANC’s history is, if not passed, certainly not likely to dominate in the way that it has.

Zuma has been something of a distant figure since he was elected head of state and the not unjustifiable impression has been created that, like his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, he was more comfortable when out of the country.

While there is a strong suspicion the announcements he made yesterday, particularly the commitment to conduct site visits across the country from November to the middle of next year to monitor service delivery, have been driven by a desire to ensure success in next year’s local government elections, that he is doing so must be welcomed, particularly if he is able to ensure what is wrong is corrected. Too often members of the executive visit areas where there has been a breakdown in service delivery and make promises that are not followed up.

Zuma has linked the renewal of the ANC to that of the performance of government to speed up service delivery. Clearly, if the organisation does not experience that renewal and as Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi noted last week, discipline is not restored, the process of that “new life for all” will be negatively affected.

Critically both will depend not on promoting the branches as the most important unit of the ANC or on visits around the country, but on the willingness of both the ANC as a party and government to take decisive action against those who undermine this process. If the ANC fails to act against those who promote factionalism or fails to take punitive steps against those who are corrupt or indolent in government, renewal will be doomed to fail.

In the past the ANC has often demonstrated a reluctance to act against the corrupt or those who fail to carry out the duties for which they are paid. It is that more than anything else that must change if we are to move forward with the speed required to meet the challenges this country faces.