Mantashe: Infighting ANC's biggest liability

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the biggest liability the party faces is infighting, which started as far back as 2005.

In an interview with Independent Media yesterday, Mantashe said ANC members regarded their factions as more important than the organisation itself.

Mantashe conceded that with ANC stalwarts having pulled out of the party's policy conference starting today, the gathering had become a do or die matter for the party.

Mantashe will today present behind closed doors a “diagnostic” report, which will delve into the serious problems besetting the ANC.

He admitted that they had not been able to forge unity among their structures and were also grappling with enforcing discipline.

Most of the problems started in 2005, when branches of the ANC revolted and pushed for President Jacob Zuma to be reinstated after he was fired by then president Thabo Mbeki in the wake of corruption allegations.

Mantashe said since then members had struggled to unite the fractured party, coupled with the loss of technical capacity at Luthuli House since they deployed their best cadres to the government after 1994.

“The capacity of the ANC was almost destroyed at the point of ascending to power because when we ascended to power we took everybody with content to government and left the party empty. 

"So we are coming here with the ANC that has been grappling with losing capacity that is in government, which is ANC capacity. 

“The problem is not in that technical capacity, the problem is in the political divisions and fights, this is why to me it is quite important to trace that from 2005 when it came to the head and come with it up to here. 

"The biggest liability to the ANC is the divisions of ANC structures where people believe factions are more important than the body itself.” 

Mantashe reiterated his stance that the problems of the party could not only be blamed on Zuma and also could not be resolved by removing the president. There were fears that responding to calls within and outside of the ANC to remove Zuma could lead to a split in the organisation.

Mantashe said even stalwarts such as Andrew Mlangeni could not share with other members how to deal with calls for Zuma's removal.

“The only person who can deal with that issue is Tat’u (Andrew) Mlangeni, who has been in the ANC since 1945 and served under seven different presidents. Therefore we are building experience, as we walk on that issue. 

“When you sit where I am sitting, you do an analysis of what would happen if you remove a sitting president of the ANC, who still has a lot of visible support in the body of the organisation,” Mantashe said.

The party would also be going to the conference against the backdrop of an ailing economy, which threatened to derail the National Development Plan and the fight against 
unemployment, inequality and poverty.