Former president Thabo Mbeki has suggested he will not be campaigning for the African National Congress in the general elections next year, telling an audience "how will I do that when the ANC branch is led by a criminal".
Mbeki was taking part in a dialogue at the University of South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs.
The former leader of the ANC, who was dethroned by former president Jacob Zuma at the watershed Polokwane Elective Conference in 2007, spoke about deepening factionalism and how State institutions had come under increasing attack since 2008.
"I say to them when they say I must campaign to get people to vote ANC, how will I do that when the ANC branch in this constituency is led by a criminal?
"The renewal process is important.
"There is a systematic process to destroy the democratic state, even from within the governing party, with people who will resist its renewal and perpetuate this reality of greed and thieves who are corrupt.
"The question remains: what is to be done? What do we do to defeat these people who want to destroy the democratic state? Who are they?"
Mbeki said the late former president Nelson Mandela warned of rogue elements in 1997 at the Mafikeng Conference, saying some were using the ANC as a "step ladder" to get access to government contracts.
He said all ANC conferences since 1997 had warned of the phenomenon, while the last two ANC elective conferences in Nasrec, held in 2018 and 2022, had called for "renewal" of the ANC, yet he said nothing was happening.
He said ANC members who had lined up their pockets had not been removed or dealt with either.
He said some people had joined ANC factions and did not know anything about the true values of the party. He said there were many among the ANC who had no clue what it meant to be a member of the ANC.
YOUTH VOTE
Mbeki has implored young people to take charge of their destiny, register to vote, and vote in the elections next year.
"This is a serious matter because young people are among the large number of people who don't vote. They are letting the country drift without making any input; it is a political problem.
"The youth organisations that come from the youth have become very weak. They are not making an impact on the youth to say the future of this country is your responsibility; you cannot delegate that to anyone," he said.
Mbeki said to vote was to have a view, and young people had to demand answers from the ANC.
"If I come to say to the young, please vote for me, they must ask me why. We want something more substantial to be able to vote for you.
"Ask the ANC, given what has happened over all these years, what justifies that I vote for you?
"The youth need to raise those questions; they need to determine the future of South Africa," he said.
THE MULTIPARTY CHARTER
Commenting on the formation of the Multiparty Charter, which is a coalition of parties including the Democratic Alliance, ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, Inkatha Freedom Party and other smaller parties, Mbeki said it was a group of people opposed to the ANC, and they had every right to oppose the ANC.
"We are practically faced with a challenge to rescue this country from forces determined to destroy it. What is it that we do to turn the economy around? We must do this or that to produce more jobs and wealth and attend to all these deficiencies.
"I don't know what the Moonshot Pact (Multiparty Charter) said about that...
"What is it that we do to defeat hunger, unemployment, and crime? I would be glad if they contributed to achieve those," he said.
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