Don’t drown us, help us, Mbalula tells ANC Veterans League
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has urged the ruling party’s senior citizens not to publicly crucify all the current leaders but to rather guide them.
He was addressing the ANC Veterans League (ANCVL) conference held in Boksburg on Friday.
“Do not drown us when you see that we are in trouble, help us,” Mbalula said.
He said while the veterans had a licence to speak up on the challenges facing the party, he noted with concern that some veterans often speak ill of the party on public platforms.
He admitted that the ANC still depends on the veterans to provide counsel and wisdom in order to advance programmes that seek to bring out renewal in the party.
Previously, ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa and members and other top seven members have received scathing remarks from senior leaders such as former President Thabo Mbeki about the leadership vacuum they said currently exists in the ruling party as well as the ANC’s dismal performance at the last municipal elections.
Meanwhile, Mbalula also used the platform to once again read out the riot act against what he termed as “lazy ministers” deployed to government by the ANC as well as “defiant members.”
Last week, Mbalula spoke on the performance of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan in relation to the crisis facing some parastatal entities such as Eskom and Transnet, warning that Gordhan had to move with speed or else they would “move him.”
He later clarified that his remarks were merely a call to action for Ministers and did not imply that Gordhan would be recalled.
“We have had to deal decisively with some of our deployees who seem to see their work as an unending jamboree where everything goes. That is why those who defied the instructions of the movement had to reckon with the fact that the patience of the movement is not unending. They had to realize that the organizational culture of the movement is drawn from the revolutionary concept and practice of democratic centralism,” he told the veterans conference.
He further spoke on the decision that has been taken against rogue members.
“There is space for democracy but when a decision is taken the majority view obtains and in instances where an upper structure has taken the decision, lower structures have to and must comply. Those who do not understand these epithets are yet to understand the African National Congress.”
Delivering his political report, ANCVL national task team convenor Snuki Zikalala minced no words and called for an immediate end to the socio-economic challenges facing the party such as crippling infrastructure, poverty and load shedding.
“It is beholden on us to turn the situation around us. The rule of law must prevail in this country and we have to rebuild capacity,” he said, adding the role of the veterans is to rally behind the ruling party.
Meanwhile in their message of support, the ANC Women’s League national executive committee member Pemmy Majodina said while the women’s structure had also gone through its revival phase and held its conference, it was looking to the ANCVL for guidance.
ANC Youth League secretary-general Mntuwoxolo Ngudle reminded the veterans of the troubles the country’s youth continue to face in a post-colonial era saying one of the solutions to tackling youth employment is to industrialise the South African economy and come up with industrial policies.
Cosatu on the other hand said the government had to act decisively to deliver on its promises, ahead of the upcoming elections.
It agreed with Mbalula that the alliance must act against those who bring the ANC into disrepute.
The three-day conference concludes on Sunday, July 30.
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