Johnathan Paoli
African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has expressed his confidence in the Government of National Unity (GNU) and while recognising the challenges, he said, he believes it remains a vehicle for transformation and development within the country.
Mbalula was briefing the media on the outcomes of the recent National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and the National Lekgotla on Thursday and said the GNU is the party’s best tactical intervention, despite being aware of it being inherently risky.
He said the NEC was fully aware of the risks and understood that GNUs and coalitions have inherent contradictions as contested governments composed of rival parties that have ideological and policy differences.
Mbalula said the NEC will put in place measures to ensure that the GNU is effective in order to succeed in addressing the pressing challenges facing the people.
“The balance of power and how the ANC emerges as a dominant political force in the long run will depend significantly on how we pursue a strategic course of action inside and outside the government, mobilising the motive forces behind a clear programme of action for progressive change,” he said.
The SG confirmed that the Drafting Team should immediately revise and finalise the draft Strategic Perspective document based on the inputs made by the NEC members during this meeting so that it can be used to brief structures throughout the country.
He said the NEC recognises that the GNU is the best tactical intervention that provides a platform to defend the gains of freedom and advance the core elements of the party’s manifesto.
Mbalula said the committee resolved to use this moment to dispel all signs of complacency and arrogance and to be totally intolerant of corruption and incompetence.
“This moment will also require a more agile and dynamic ANC machinery that can hold individual deployees and leadership collectives accountable to specific outcomes in the ANC Manifesto,” he said.
As the party with the largest amount of votes, Mbalula acknowledged the manner in which the ANC has seized both the tactical and strategic initiative and shaped a common understanding about the need for political parties to work together and voluntarily cooperate in setting up an inclusive, viable and stable government that will address the people’s needs and advance the transformation agenda.
Mbalula said although there have been disagreements, exacerbated by social media, the ANC is the main driver behind the GNU.
“No other party has the capacity and legitimacy of the ANC to drive direction to the nation. Even those who were fiercely opposed to the movement during the elections started to make frantic calls that South Africa needs the ANC to move out of a potential electoral stalemate,” he said.
The coalition chaos, institutional instability and government dysfunction, which has become a hallmark of the country’s municipal landscape, must never be allowed to define the overall state of affairs on a national level.
In relation to the Lekgotla, the SG said all the pressing issues in the context of the party manifesto were considered in order to ensure that the 7th administration gets the country back on track to decisively deal with unemployment, poverty and inequality as reflected in the ANC’s 6 priorities.
Mbalula said the Lekgotla reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive socioeconomic transformation that includes fundamental changes in the structure, systems, and institutions to reform the economy’s ownership, management, and control patterns in favour of all South Africans, with a focus on the marginalised, vulnerable, and poor, who are primarily Africans and women.
He emphasised the need to focus on implementing the decisions from the lekgotla which implored ANC cadres to implement commitments of the ANC Manifesto, the GNU Statement of Intent and the directives of the President in the Opening of Parliament Address.
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