'It is incapable of being renewed' — Former ANC member Mervyn Bennun on withdrawing his membership

Activist Mervyn Bennun is the latest to throw in the towel as an ANC member, saying the party is unfit to govern.

Bennun resigned from the ruling party last week and said he would not be renewing his membership. 

In his resignation letter to the party, he said the ANC can no longer redeem itself. 

“I will not renew my membership of the ANC. The ANC is no longer fit to govern or worthy of my support, exiguous as it has been. I no longer wish to be a member,” said Bennun. 

“The ANC appears to regard its glorious and triumphant history as a reason for it to continue to govern. In its current state and conduct, it is dishonouring and defiling this history,” he added.

Speaking on CapeTalk, Bennun said he had been growing increasingly uneasy with the ANC and its leadership until he reached a point where he could no longer see it redeeming itself.

Bennun has been a member of the party for more than 73 years. 

“I don’t know how much more of a chance is needed. The point about the letter I wrote is that I have a feeling the ANC, as it is at present, cannot renew itself. It is incapable of being renewed,” he said. 

He said the ANC and its national executive committee have undeniably failed and all the information that has come out, has made this plain to see.

Bennun also told Newzroom Afrika he was not interested in achieving fame or glory over speaking out about the ANC's leadership. 

He acknowledged his contribution to the ruling party “was very small” but said he was “heartbroken” by the party's current leadership. 

“I hope that what I wrote is listened to but the impact that it makes, only history and time can tell.”

Earlier this year, former finance minister Trevor Manuel said his ANC membership had lapsed and the party's moral leadership was gone. 

He said the ANC was never the same after the Polokwane conference in 2007.

“I think close monitoring of the events post-Polokwane 2007, even though I remained a member of the national executive committee for five more years and remained a member of the cabinet until 2014, the magic, the stance of moral leadership that had shaped the ANC throughout my youth was gone. I think the event at Polokwane took that away,” Manuel told 702. 

What confirmed his decision to leave, he said, was when former ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe called him a “free agent” after Manuel called for former president Jacob Zuma to pay back the money used for non-security upgrades at his Nkandla homestead.

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