ANC stalwarts and veterans not backing down on call for consultative conference

A group that refers to itself as ANC stalwarts and veterans says its resolve to work towards a national consultative conference is strengthened with every new revelation of the depth of “project state capture”‚ other instances of corruption and the factionalism that threatens to rip the party apart.

The group of disenchanted ANC members boycotted the party’s recent national policy conference after its request for the first two days of the conference to be a consultative one was spurned.

“We were not successful in the run up to the policy conference in our motivation for a separate consultative conference. We are also aware that despite promises from the President‚ the arguments in favour of a separate conference were never‚ as promised to us‚ placed before the national executive committee of the ANC. To the best of our knowledge no discussion on the national consultative conference ever took place in the national executive committee after their original decision last year‚” the group said on Thursday.

With the failure of the leadership to make it possible for the branches‚ which constitute 90% of delegates of conferences to critically discuss the crisis from an informed perspective‚ the stated objective of the first two days of the policy conference would have been an exercise of futility and was therefore‚ at the last moment integrated into the policy conference by the ANC leadership‚ it said.

“Although‚ the national executive committee did not have the opportunity to discuss our motivations for a separate consultative there has been a groundswell of support for the urgent need for not only a consultative conference but for all structures of the ANC and the alliance to honestly reflect on their own failures and complicity in the crisis our movement and the country face. We all recognise this is not an easy task for any organisation‚ but it is a necessary one if the legitimacy of the ANC is to be restored in the eyes of the electorate and especially our youth‚ who did not experience the reality of living under apartheid.

“We nevertheless noted the suggestion by our President at one of our pre-policy conference discussions that the national consultative conference could still be held after the policy conference and prior to the elective conference in December. This we believe could offer a possible solution to the present impasse‚” the group added.

“In our hoped for further discussions with the leadership of the ANC we will motivate for that suggestion by the President to be embraced‚ with a target date of not later than the end of October 2017. We believe this would be acceptable to all those in the ANC and within the alliance who genuinely seek to turn the ANC’s trajectory from this path of self-destruction.”

- TimesLIVE