Former president Thabo Mbeki has urged the ANC to hold a renewal conference and elect new leaders who have joined the party only to improve people’s lives and not out of a desire for self-enrichment.

The former head of state was addressing a political education class in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday. Mbeki suggested that the renewal conference should sift out those who joined the movement to attain power for greed and self-enrichment.

He stated that the ANC has not deviated from its original principle of liberating those who were oppressed and change their lives for the better, however, after attaining power it began attracting greedy and corrupt members who saw the party as a vehicle to enrich themselves.

“We have been talking about renewal of our movement. After the renewal, we must hold a conference of the new membership we gained through the renewal process because we can’t keep on holding conferences which repeatedly elect people who needed not to be in the ANC in the first place.

“I think we must come here to the province and assist the provincial task team to elect such people then discuss the critical issue of what needs to be done to address all these challenges facing our people,” said Mbeki.

He said his foundation was busy organising a national dialogue, in conjunction with other foundations, where the political parties particularly the ANC as the governing party, would be invited to answer questions from the people on what went wrong and what needs to be done to correct the wrongs. Mbeki hinted that the reasons why his and other foundations did not participate in the government-sponsored National Dialogue was that it deviated and became a project by politicians rather than one driven by ordinary citizens.

 He said that the new dialogue will not be a platform for complaints but one for finding solutions to the challenges facing the country such as crime, unemployment, corruption and other pressing issues.

Mbeki’s call for an ANC renewal conference came as the party’s regions raced against time to meet the Tuesday deadline to complete the branch audit processes, which has been complicated by those members who hold dual membership.

The problem has resulted in the party’s two key regions, eThekwini and Moses Mabhida, raising doubt that they will meet the national leadership’s directive of holding elective conferences by the end of the year. 

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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