If the ANC rejects our generational mission, it will be out of power - Andile Lungisa

Former ANC youth league leader, former councillor and ANC NEC hopeful Andile Lungisa has warned that the ANC will be out of power should it reject the radical transformation agenda in its renewal.

"The problems in this country are making people move away from the ANC. People are unemployed, they are not working and the ANC is not providing any solution.

"The ANC talks about job opportunities – you cannot promise job opportunities, you must provide those jobs for South Africans, because opportunities cannot be guaranteed," Lungisa said.

"Its like in the world cup, there can be an opportunity to score but the player does not score. Therefore we can't say they have scored. We must stop lying to South Africans and promise opportunities, our push as a generation must be to employ young people in this country, some of whom are graduates," he added.

Lungisa, who has dropped his name in the hat for the position of ANC treasurer-general, cited landlessness as a key creator of poverty and underdevelopment.

"The land question in South Africa as a struggle for independence has always occupied a central place in the demands of the organisation, we must address poverty and inequality with urgency," he said.

Lungisa said the energy crisis is devastating the economy and wreaking havoc in people's lives. He vehemently rejected the move to do away with coal.

Other economic positions he spoke of included the introduction of a state-owned bank, industrialisation of the country's economy and a mandate to the Public Investment Corporation to deinvest in companies whose primary listing is not in South Africa or is not 50+ 1% black owned.

Lungisa accused the current ANC of being hijacked by "neo-liberals, neo-colonialists and neo-settler elite elements".

"What is dominant in the ANC currently is not progressive forces, and my generation must change that. We are championing this radical programme of action within the ANC and outside, so it can be embraced by components of society and the masses of our people.

"If the ANC rejects this call, it will be out of power. And it needs every person who thinks, is not an idiot who is not a clown, who is not a mascot in the ANC, to affirm with our generational agenda in order to restore the dignity of South Africans," he said.

The treasurer-general hopeful said he had been lobbying branches across the country ahead of the upcoming ANC's 55th national conference.

"That is the call I’ve been making, travelling nine provinces to all constituencies, making engagements with all the comrades from our generation.

"If my generation’s programme is not successful, the ANC will be out of power. What will keep the ANC in power is this programme. If they reject this programme, they are rejecting their presence in power," he added.

Speaking on the possibility of resistance from ANC elders, he accused them of targeting his generation.

"That’s why our generation has been a target, where for example my membership will be willy-nilly taken away today, retained tomorrow and taken away the next. It's still the old agenda that is isolating this generation for standing firm on the economic and land question in this country," he said. 

Lungisa says the delegates in the conference, including the structures in the conference all over the country, are led by his comrades from his generation, but says that their stance is not guaranteed.

"The sad part about my generation is that we get easily co-opted into the agendas which are not of our generation. Our generation came with the programme of action of economic freedom in our lifetime, which was adopted in the youth league conference of 2011.

"Our role is to push the same agenda in the upcoming conference," he said.

Lungisa added that as a generation, they cannot allow themselves to be co-opted into factions.

"ANC factions will always be there contesting one another – there’s no faction of the ANC that is better than the other, they mutate like a snake. But as a generation we have to stay away from factions if we want to make an impact," he said.

Ahead of the 2024 national election and amid a possibility of the ANC not receiving the majority vote, Lungisa said his generation was trying to prevent that eventuality.

"If the eventuality comes and we must devise a coalition configuration,  we will then have to align ourselves with those progressive forces who talk about our own agenda, who are not hostile to this programme of economic freedom.

Recently, ANC electoral head Kgalema Motlanthe announced the names of those candidates who received majority nominations from branches.

Despite not appearing on the list announced by Motlanthe, Lungisa maintains that his name will be on the ballot, as nominated by the Western Cape.

"My name is on that ballot for the position of TG [treasure-general], it wont be raised from the floor. Rule 12.7.1 of the ANC constitution states that a provincial nomination qualifies you to be on the ballot. There are no guidelines that can change the constitution of the ANC," he said.

"As a generation we will be appealing to the majority of delegates, to support our generational agenda. We will need to win 2251 out of 4500 votes." 

Speaking on the contestation between himself and Pule Mabe and Mzwandile Masina, who are from the same generation, vying for the same position - he said they would "find each other".

"There is no crisis in the generation that came with the programme of action for the youth league. We have got our own hierarchy, and its own pecking order. Within that generation there's a pecking order that will have to be observed, followed, supported and respected.

"And not everyone who joined the ANC and is young becomes a part of the generation. We must drive economic freedom - 'ayingo vula zingene, ayingo vula zibhuqe' [it is not a free for all]," he said.

"The future TG must be known as an activist who has been at the centre of economic change in SA."

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