ANC elective conference a matter of ‘life and death’: Mantashe

As the ANC prepares for its elective conference in December‚ the party will have to choose between life and death.

This is according to ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe who was delivering a memorial lecture on the party's longest serving president‚ Oliver Reginald Tambo‚ in Vosloorus‚ east of Johannesburg on Sunday.

"The choice that the ANC has in December is a choice between life and death. It's a choice between prosperity and disaster. The choice that we have in December is to first cleanse the ANC because we are in a transition of moving from a particular era to the next‚" said Mantashe.

Mantashe‚ who has served as the party's secretary general for two consecutive terms‚ said using dirty tricks to discredit presidential candidates in December will destroy the party.

"This issue of using dirty tricks to attack your imagined opponent in the ANC is similar to tactics used by the National Party and we know those tricks. Once we go to that level comrades‚ we must know that it is the beginning of the end of the African National Congress‚" he said.

His remarks come just a week after Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa made headlines after becoming embroiled in an alleged sex scandal allegedly involving multiple women. Ramaphosa charged that the "dirty tricks" 'campaign was aimed at discrediting him and that it was being driven through the use of state resources.

Mantashe said the party needs leaders who will unite visible factions and deal with corruption for the sake of the country.

"Once a liberation movement becomes allergic to intellectual capacity‚ you must know it is losing its place. We need to cleanse ourselves from being known for corruption‚ of being known for looting and being known for state capture. Now that transition will need a particular calibre of leadership‚" said Mantashe.

He said the ANC needed to cleanse itself of negativity by choosing the right calibre of leaders because the time between now and the December elective conference was crucial.

Mantashe added that the ANC should only think about electing credible leaders at that conference.

"Branches of the ANC must analyse every individual leader and not just support a slate that has been brought to you. Talk to the name and you must analyse every characteristic to see if they pass [the test].