ANC needs to stay relevant: Motlanthe

Deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe has said “vested personal interests” are preventing the ANC from being more united and effective and the problems are likely to worsen, according to a report.

“If it does not pay attention to the importance of being relevant to the people of SA, it will run the risk of losing power,” Motlanthe told Business Day newspaper in an interview.

Commentators — inside and outside the African National Congress  — believed the party’s share of the vote was in danger of falling below 60% for the first time in next year’s general elections.

Motlanthe said this worried him.

“It’s definitely not going to be an easy election — people...assess a party not on the basis of its glorious history but on the basis of what they experience,” he was quoted as saying.

When asked how much time the ANC had to turn itself around, Motlanthe told the newspaper: “The crisis must reach its apex first.

“I think it will be self-delusion to believe it’s something that can self-correct. It has to get worse first,” he said.