ANC 'fails to achieve goals' as rifts grow

The ANC is imploding - open divisions among its leaders mean the party will celebrate its centenary next year more divided than it was in 2007. This is ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe's frank appraisal - contained in his organisational report to the party's national executive committee (NEC) last weekend.

Mantashe paints a picture of infighting, NEC members failing to do their work and sowing divisions.

Just more than a quarter of the party's members are not in good standing and a demographic profile shows it is failing to achieve its non-racial goals.

Mantashe said divisions in the NEC - the second-highest decision-making body - "are becoming more glaring, with comrades locked into groupings". "More worrying is the efforts comrades put into dividing the organisation. Comrades invest a lot of time and energy in trying to divide the (top six) officials and then shout that even the officials are divided."

He said that unless the NEC took a firm position, "the 53rd national conference [next year in Mangaung] looks set to be more polarised than the 52nd [conference in 2007 in Polokwane]".

In 2007, the party was fiercely divided as one faction supporting Jacob Zuma fought successfully to remove Thabo Mbeki as party head. Mantashe said insults hurled at Zuma by his own colleagues were worrying.

"Comrades boldly boast that the abnormal situation and the divisions that characterised the 52nd conference must now be accepted as a tradition of the ANC.

"Kingmakers and bookmakers can only survive when the NEC is divided. Politics of blackmail get stronger when factions are growing stronger than the organisational structures," he said.

He said the league's personal attacks showed "narrow shortsightedness". The league, under Julius Malema, wants Mantashe to be replaced by the former's predecessor, Fikile Mbalula, next year.

Mantashe said the party was slow in recruiting members of other races. "The fact that the membership of the ANC is predominantly African ... is indicative of the slow progress we are making in building a non-racial society."

The party is not only confronted by race issues. "The membership is visibly growing younger and is perceived to be intolerant of the older members," warned Mantashe.

- INDEPENDENT