Speaking at Cosatu's three-day KwaZulu-Natal provincial congress in Pietermaritzburg, Vavi said the ANC and its allies had for many years pointed out weaknesses and taken bold resolutions on what needed to be done, yet its track record of dealing with challenges left much to be desired.

"We lack the political will to implement our own decisions, [especially] when those decisions are against powerful interests in the organisation," Vavi said.

His comments come just days after the ANC policy conference in Midrand, at which a number of resolutions on policy were taken .

Whether the proposed policies, which President Jacob Zuma said were a radical shift, are adopted will be decided at the ANC's elective conference in Mangaung in December.

Vavi said it was pointless for the ANC to adopt policies if they were not going to be implemented and warned that if such a trend continued, the DA would continue to grow.

Vavi said the ANC's 52nd national congress in 2007 had noted that "foreign tendencies" such as ghost membership, rent-a-member, winner-takes-all positions, unceasing lobbying, howling and heckling were damaging the party, but that five years on, these problems persisted.

"Our problem is not that we have identified these problems but a refusal sometimes to do what we know is correct.

". We insist there will be no economic transformation led by a divided and factionalised organisation."

He said factionalism should be condemned.

"The problem is that when we are on public platforms, we speak against factionalism. But as soon as we leave those platforms, we do exactly what we have been saying must not be done . We sing songs praising individuals," he said.

He also condemned the gunning down of Wandile Mkhize, the ANC chief whip in the KwaZulu-Natal Hibiscus Coast municipality hours after his return from the policy conference in Midrand.

Killing for positions had taken over the ANC, Vavi said.

The murder was an example of how things in the ruling party had "deteriorated".

Mkhize, 34, a staunch Zuma supporter, died in a hail of bullets while walking with a friend in Margate's Manaba area.

"Political killings are so commonplace in KwaZulu-Natal that we can no longer blame them on the IFP warlords because it's an inside job," Vavi said.