The ANC’s Gauteng provincial task team coordinator, Panyaza Lesufi, has warned Johannesburg regional hopefuls against obliterating each other in factional battles, only to gain captainship of a “sinking ship”.
He read the riot act, cautioning against the leadership contest turning ugly at the expense of the political party which is facing serious decline as its major threat.
“All of us are inside a ship that is sinking, and it is sinking at a faster rate. Instead of all of us collectively determining how to save this ship, we are squabbling amongst ourselves about who the owner of the ship is. You can emerge as the owner of this ship, but when it is at the belly of the sea, it will be a meaningless ship.
“We are coming to you to say, even if somebody has stolen your delegate, even if somebody has promised you a delegate, even if somebody has said they will bring the numbers — if the numbers don’t ‘number’, the ANC must number! That is how we are going to correct things.”
He told delegates at the opening of the party’s Johannesburg regional elective conference that there are more pertinent issues that the organisation should occupy itself with, which will cost them support if neglected.
“If we can’t attend to these issues, let’s close shop. Our movement must be one that advances these areas for our people. The resolutions that we are about to take as we approach the NGC [national general council] — if these issues are not there and aren’t prioritised, we will remain irrelevant to our people.”
Our people are very clear, that they have not left us — but we as the leaders have left our people. They raise sharply the issues they believe we have neglected
— Panyaza Lesufi, ANC Gauteng provincial task team coordinator
Outgoing regional chairperson Dada Morero is vying for re-election as the former deputy secretary-general eyes the top job to lead one of the ANC’s most influential regions in the country.
“We are not coming here, comrades, to show individual strength; we are coming here for the soul of the organisation. We are not coming here to be a member of a member; you are coming here to be members of the organisation. The challenges that you need to confront from now on are real. The challenges that you need to respond to, we are inside them,” Lesufi said.
“Our people are very clear, that they have not left us — but we as the leaders have left our people. They raise sharply the issues they believe we have neglected.”
He decried unemployment as topping the list of the party’s biggest crises, adding that it had been accused of lacking in ideas, strategies and programmes to turn around the conditions for the majority of young people.
Lesufi said the ANC was known for flaunting its opulence to its poorest supporters, adding that the party must demonstrate that it leads society. He gave a stern warning that this normalised behaviour, including corruption, will be to the detriment of the former liberation movement.
“If we don’t tackle corruption, it is the end of us. Our people feel that we don’t put up the necessary energy to fight it. They appreciate that we have put up systems and created institutions like the Hawks, the NPA, the public protector and intelligence — but they believe that with those institutions, it depends on your name, your surname and your association before matters can be attended to.”
He raised the contested issue of illegal immigrants as an achilles heel, affecting the lives of South Africans who have lost trust in the ANC because of their lacklustre approach to the problem.
“We can’t have people that we don’t know who they are, we don’t have their fingerprints, we don’t have their identification and we don’t know how they came into our country, to do as they wish here. We can’t have foreign citizens who can’t be accounted for. Our people are sending a strong message that this must be dealt with.”
The conference is expected to resume on Wednesday, when organisational and financial reports are to be presented and discussed in a closed session. Following this, nominations for the highly anticipated incoming regional structure will be taken.
TimesLIVE
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