The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal says its decision to enter into a government of national unity (GNU) has resuscitated an ANC that lost the elections, allowing it to continue to lead the government and champion its transformation programmes.
At its first media briefing since a shocking electoral defeat saw the party's support in the province decline from 54% to 16%, provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said those criticising the ANC’s choice of GNU partners as a “sell-out position” were creating “false narratives”.
It was now the duty of the ANC to not only rebuild its branches but educate its structures in dispelling these “false narratives” against the GNU with an emphasis on its statement of intent, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address and a contrast with ANC conference resolutions.
“The GNU, when we say it's parties that we share common values with, you must not mistake that we share a common ideology — no party shares ANC ideology unless it's an alliance partner,” Mtolo said.
“We agree on principles that the country must be governed by the system of constitutionalism, that there must be economic growth, job creation, stability, peace in South Africa — those are common values. Of course we will differ here and there.”
GNU has resuscitated the ANC, says ANC KZN secretary Bheki Mtolo
Provincial secretary comes out in defence of ANC choice of partners in co-governing deal
The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal says its decision to enter into a government of national unity (GNU) has resuscitated an ANC that lost the elections, allowing it to continue to lead the government and champion its transformation programmes.
At its first media briefing since a shocking electoral defeat saw the party's support in the province decline from 54% to 16%, provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said those criticising the ANC’s choice of GNU partners as a “sell-out position” were creating “false narratives”.
It was now the duty of the ANC to not only rebuild its branches but educate its structures in dispelling these “false narratives” against the GNU with an emphasis on its statement of intent, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address and a contrast with ANC conference resolutions.
“The GNU, when we say it's parties that we share common values with, you must not mistake that we share a common ideology — no party shares ANC ideology unless it's an alliance partner,” Mtolo said.
“We agree on principles that the country must be governed by the system of constitutionalism, that there must be economic growth, job creation, stability, peace in South Africa — those are common values. Of course we will differ here and there.”
Criticism against the ANC’s GNU partners has mainly been against the DA whose political ideology differs vastly from the ANC.
Reflecting on the party's electoral loss in KwaZulu-Natal, Mtolo blamed the ANC’s indecisiveness on former president and now MK Party leader Jacob Zuma and unsavoury elements that campaigned on the tribalism and regionalism ticket.
“Our structures are saying our failure to act quickly, to separate Jacob Zuma from the ANC, confused voters including the membership. You have this person, he says I am ANC and I will die in the ANC but I want to sort out the ANC of Ramaphosa, then he creates a separate ANC.
“He knows the dynamics of KZN, he knows that message was an undertone of something that plays into the sentiments of the people of KZN. People were looking for the ANC of Jacob Zuma in the ballot,” Mtolo said.
He said the ANC was worried that “extreme backwardness” such as tribalism, identity politics and a desire for hegemonic regionalism had found fertile ground in the party's own structures due to weaknesses in rolling out political education over the years.
He has since announced a rebuilding programme that includes political education, citing prolonged institutionalised factionalism and gatekeeping as sources of weakened branches.
A team made up of national executive committee deployees to KwaZulu-Natal, Sibongile Besani and David Mahlobo, elders who previously led the province such as Sbu Ndebele, Mike Mabuyakhulu and Peggy Nkonyeni and members of Mkhonto Wesizwe Liberation War Veterans, will head the programme.
According to Mtolo, the team will pay particular attention to matters of renewal because “for the ANC to live forever, it is high time it takes the matter of renewal to heart — live by it, live through it because it is only a renewed ANC that can win back the people's confidence”.
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