THE ANC’s brand as a servant of the people and leader of society has been severely battered, the party’s national executive committee (NEC) Lekgotla admitted on Saturday.
This follows a meeting of the ANC’s highest decision-making body which took place from 20 to 23 January to deliberate the party’s plans for the year ahead.
During the meeting, the NEC lekgotla said it made an in depth analysis of the Local government elections results and the implications for the movement, with inputs from the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflections (MISTRA) and the ANC’s National Elections Team.
“The African National Congress as an organisation is beset by severe challenges, with weak organisation, internal conflicts, factionalism and individual self-interest … The ANC’s brand as a servant of the people and leader of society has been severely battered,” spokesperson Pule Mabe said in a statement.
In recent local government elections, the party suffered its worst election setback since the end of apartheid in 1994, garnering less than 50% national support.
The party’s lekgotla said to halt the deepening crisis and the ‘downward spiral’, the ANC would have to get serious about renewal, in the organisation as well as with regards to governance.
“The NEC accepted that we are on a downward spiral, and that unless we renew and rebuild the organisation, we will fail in our mission to fundamentally and radically transform society and build a better life for all,” Mabe said.
“It recognized that decisive and different actions are needed in every pillar of our programme, by all leaders, members, public representatives, deployees and structures, and not just lofty pronouncements.”
To turn the situation around, the ANC plans, among other things, setting up a permanent election capacity with a budget and strategic, message, research, by-election, monitoring and training capacity, backed up by a call centre that monitors implementation of municipal plans and ANC programmes.
The party said it “will also set up a team of ANC election experts and leaders that can deploy a rescue mission to every region or sub-region where we lost significant votes in the last 3 elections, and engage with all structures on the elections analysis reports.
- Inside Politics
