By Simon Nare
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has admitted the party is facing an existential crisis and needs to focus on ensuring it makes up lost ground ahead of the local government polls.
Addressing journalists at the unveiling of the reconfigured ANC Gauteng task team, Mbalula warned that members should not be pre-occupied with the succession battle because it would be settled at the national conference.
He said they should refrain from attacking the leadership or the movement on social media, but rather defend it. He went further to say there was a comrade who took to social media in the dead of the night to attack the leadership but would not divulge details.
“Our revolution is facing an existential crisis. The question who leads the ANC in the future will come and will be settled. It’s an easy thing. At the present moment we are facing a mountain. A mountain that we must climb like Kilimanjaro and ascend.
“So, this question of who leads and all of that. Even when we get there, we might get there and you will be shocked (that) there will be no problem because we have worked for the movement. From where we are, we must come back. We must recover lost ground,” he said.
Mbalula said it would be difficult for the organisation to stage a comeback while members were distracted by the succession battle.
He added that presently there was leadership and when the time came for conferences, the national leaders would start the debates.
The secretary-general unveiled the new leadership of the task team led by veteran and former Joburg mayor Amos Masondo, with premier and former chairman Panyaza Lesufi sharing powers as convenors after the provincial executive committee was disbanded.
The move to disband the PEC was due to poor performance at the polls in the national and provincial elections. The party garnered less than 50% and was forced to govern through a coalition with other parties.
Lesufi welcomed the disbandment of the PEC and the deployment, acknowledging that the organisation would always assign members tasks.
“I don’t think the ANC would do so if they did not think we were capable. To me it is refreshing, exciting, but most importantly it overstretches our capabilities so that we can be in a position to respond to all the issues our SG has just outlined,” Lesufi said.
Mbalula said the national leadership had confidence in Lesufi’s leadership and that was why he would be retained in the provincial government.
Of the top five in the province, Lesufi is the only survivor.
Provincial secretary TK Nciza has been replaced by Hope Papo who has been deployed as provincial coordinator. Mbalula said Nciza would remain on the payroll until his term ended in July next year.
Mbalula said that even though the national executive committee has disbanded the PEC, it remained firmly committed to the renewal and strengthening of the movement in Gauteng, ensuring that it continued to be an effective vehicle for transformation and development.
“The national executive committee has taken a strategic decision to reconfigure the provincial structures, reinforcing leadership in a way that builds on experience while embracing new energy.
“Gauteng holds immense historical and political significance as the centre of the struggle against apartheid and the host province of the ANC’s national headquarters, Luthuli House,” he said.
He added that the decision to reconfigure Gauteng’s leadership was not taken as a punitive measure against the PEC. It was rather a response to beef up the party in the country’s most populous and economically significant province.
Mbalula said the party’s 41% national vote outcome in the 2024 elections was heavily influenced by results in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, making these two provinces central to the ANC’s overall renewal and recovery strategy.
He said the task team has been given at least nine months to get the province in order and one of the first things it needed to do was to audit branches.
Mbalula also said he was aware of a threat to legally challenge the disbandment of the PEC and was prepared to defend it in court.
A letter is circulating on social media containing the threat, but it has not officially been received by Mbalula.
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