Fourth meeting to decide if the ANC can turn the tide — and how

Three national executive committee (NEC) meetings later, the ANC seems to still be in the dark about what needs to happen for the party to turn around its electoral fortunes — 18 months before the next local government elections.

So much so that the party plans to have yet another NEC meeting to further discuss its hammering in the May national and provincial elections. This meeting has now been scheduled for the end of August and the party will discuss what it terms “the state of the organisation”.

This would be the fourth meeting of the party’s leadership since the end of May.

It is this meeting that is expected to discuss who takes the fall for the dismal showing that produced 40% at the polls and gave birth to the government of national unity.

So far, the ANC has had three NEC meetings — two at the Birchwood Hotel, including the recent six-day session, and one in Cape Town.

To its credit, however, the initial Birchwood sitting was to hear proposals for the type of coalition the party should enter into, ultimately agreeing on the GNU, while the one in Cape Town was on the eve of the swearing in of new MPs to finalise deals with their GNU partners.

The second Birchwood meeting that took place this past weekend was mainly centred on a report from its head of elections, Mdumiseni Ntuli, who was said to have been scathing, especially on poor-performing provinces such as KZN and Gauteng, as well as the communications unit.

Now the party is gearing up to its fourth NEC meeting in three months to dissect the same elections. This is the meeting many expect will look into whether some provincial executives, especially in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, will have to be disbanded to give the party a shot at recovery at the local polls.

This time, party president Cyril Ramaphosa says the NEC will comb through every branch in the party to better understand the problems leading to its electoral decline as part of the renewal programme the party has been hammering since its 2017 elections.

“We have a firm sense of what we must do to rebuild the ANC and the alliance and to begin to restore people’s trust in our movement. The NEC will be holding another meeting in a few weeks to conduct an in-depth and introspective analysis of the state of our organisation on a branch-by-branch basis with a view to enhancing the renewal of our movement,” Ramaphosa said.

“We are committed to a robust outcomes, monitoring and accountability framework of the work that we do in the ANC and in government. We will focus on the implementation and the execution of the decisions that we have arrived at. In the end, no strategy can deliver outcomes unless it is converted into specific actions.”

Ramaphosa said every leader, cadre, public representative and deployee must accept the tasks they have been given and take personal responsibility for the manner in which they perform them.

The ANC has a daunting task of convincing its tripartite alliance partners, especially the outspoken SACP, that the GNU route was the best possible decision it could have taken post the elections.

The SACP has voiced its displeasure at the ANC’s decision to form a GNU that involves the DA — what it says is a neoliberal party.

In his criticism of the ANC, SACP general secretary Solly Mapaila said the ANC could have easily gone into a coalition or a relationship of sorts with 'left-leaning' parties such as the EFF and MK. Mapaila said the ANC did not want to go this route because the dominant faction in the ANC was pro-austerity.

Ramaphosa has defended the GNU decision,  aying it was smart.

“We will continue to engage with our alliance partners on the government of national unity, having taken the view that it is the best tactical option. The ANC is fully aware of the risks and the potential threats of this moment,” he said.

Closing the party’s three-day lekgotla in Ekurhuleni, Ramaphosa said the ANC welcomed the SACP’s stance of “critical” but “non-oppositionist” towards the GNU. He agreed with the SACP that the ANC’s participation in the GNU should not undermine its core principles but rather be treated as a platform to advance the interests of the working class.

However, political issues such as the GNU should not be personalised, Ramaphosa said.

“It is necessary that the entire alliance must discuss how to handle all the pressing political, strategic, tactical and organisational questions. We will emerge stronger from the current strategic setback if we are united and work together as comrades and don't personalise political issues.

 “The ANC-led alliance can handle all the challenges of this moment and turn the setback into a strategic advantage to propel the transformation agenda forward. When we are united, we can never be defeated.”

Ramaphosa spoke strongly against ANC leaders and members who display opulence, especially when engaging with poor South Africans. He said this gives an impression that ANC members think they are better than poor South Africans.

During the party’s election campaign, some ANC leaders came under heavy criticism for wearing expensive clothes while trying to convince people in poor settlements to vote for it.

“We know that actions speak louder than words. We communicate through our conduct, our actions and the difference we make in people’s lives,” said Ramaphosa. 

“If we are divided, if we tolerate acts of corruption and patronage, if we live lavish lifestyles through which we show ourselves to be better than our people and appear to only look after our own, then not even the best communications strategy will be able to improve our standing among the people.”

He said the ANC, its leaders and members should not “occupy headlines for the wrong reasons”.

“Let us be known for excellence and competence. Every NEC member, every public representative, every deployee and every cadre must consider themselves as communicators.”