By Simon Nare
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has warned the organisation that if it does not stop its obsession with the succession debate, other than regrouping to win the local government elections, it faces a disastrous 2029 national elections.
Addressing the Chris Hani 9th regional elections in the Eastern Cape on Friday, Mbalula said that ANC members did not seem to realise the mess the party was in following its humiliating defeat in the 2024 elections.
He added that instead of members being preoccupied with building ANC branches to secure a decisive victory in the local polls next year, they were busy talking about the party’s 2027 national conference and who should lead it.
Mbalula said the local government election results would clearly define what would happen in 2029 and party members should be channeling their energy into that.
“Why are comrades obsessed with who must lead in the next conference in 2027? When we are in a muddy place like this. Who doesn’t see and appreciate the moment we are in as an organisation? Comrades are just refusing the disaster that is facing us.
“They just want us to talk about the (2027) leadership contest when we said we must wait and will have enough time to talk about it in the organisation. And that is what is important to all of as an organisation in the ANC at the present moment. If we don’t do that, we will be faster out of power than expected,” warned Mbalula.
The secretary-general further warned that there was a tendency of branches to live for elective conferences and they voted for people because they had money and not their capability to lead the organisation and the country.
He said in recent times the name of billionaire and Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club owner Patrice Motsepe was being bandied about to be the next ANC leader.
He added that he was not even sure if Motsepe was an ANC member in good standing, but admitted that the businessman did donate to the party handsomely.
“Now they are talking about people whom we don’t know if they have branches. They are saying they are going to be leaders of the ANC because they have money. ANC is not like running a football club and all of that. You work for it. This is not like (Mamelodi) Sundowns or (Orlando) Pirates.
“To those people who are always saying we want Motsepe, we want Motsepe, I don’t even know if he is a member of the ANC. Yes, his money we eat it, he donates from time to time,” he said.
Mbalula said that if Motsepe was interested, he must raise his hand and show himself within the ANC structures because those who were campaigning were irritating “like raw meat in your throat”.
He said ANC members should be disciplined and stay focused on rebuilding the party and gaining the trust of the masses so they could win the local government elections.
“Every Sunday Motsepe is touted, touted by who? And when? We said to you wait and be disciplined. Those who want to eat people’s monies, they must go and eat them far away. We are not going to be led by money here,” said Mbalula.
He also raised concerns about the alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, saying they appeared to be set on leaving the alliance.
Mbalula warned that this would further cost the ANC at the polls if the SACP went ahead and contested for state power.
Mbalula said it appeared that the horse had already bolted and the alliance partners were going around in circles. SACP candidates were contesting by-elections despite an agreement that this resolution would be discussed by Tripartite Alliance.
Mbalula said the ANC had warned its partners that the move would cost the party at the polls, but they had argued that socialism could only be represented by the SACP.
“We have never understood that the SACP has actually defined itself outside the National Development Revolution, including about socialism. That socialism will be realised through the part of NDR. Where it was redefined, we don’t know,” he said.
He reiterated that the ANC had agreed to a reconfiguration and the alliance partners just needed to find each other.
INSIDE POLITICS