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Long-serving ANC member Sipho Pityana’s views about the party should be debated, regional chairperson in Johannesburg, Parks Tau has said.
“He is very outspoken and he has raised his views and we need to engage the views he has raised as the ANC,” Tau told News24.
Pityana, a businessperson and former foreign affairs director-general, criticised the ANC at Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile’s funeral and also asked for President Jacob Zuma to resign.
In an interview with City Press political editor Rapule Tabane, Pityana said that by failing to act against Zuma, the ANC had appropriated his image of corruption.
“There is a duty to urge the ANC to put pressure on Zuma to step down. We have to remind all in society that this is not a leader we deserve, even if the ANC thinks so.”
He said the conversation about the president’s conduct could not end with the failed Democratic Alliance’s motion of no confidence in Parliament.
“The Constitution of the country provides for the impeachment of the president, and I cannot imagine a more compelling reason to have the president impeached than his violation of the Constitution and his failure to honour his oath of office.
“If you can’t impeach him for that, then there can never be another reason to impeach him.”
Pityana, an ANC veteran, said the ANC had made an unfortunate and uncharacteristic shift to being a populist organisation, whereas it had always been a values-driven party.
He added that the image of the character of the president had begun to be what the ANC stands for. “That is a huge problem.”
“When you look at the ANC’s policies, they continue to be vehemently anti-corruption.
“If you look at the Polokwane conference resolutions in 2007, they enjoin cadres to fight corruption. And yet, I can say without fear of contradiction that corruption has worsened since 2007.”
ANC branches in Johannesburg met last weekend and resolved to confront the problems facing the organisation. The Gauteng provincial executive committee called for a consultative conference to discuss whether the ANC’s current leadership was fit to lead.
Tau said Gauteng branches had not yet discussed who they would propose to be the next ANC president.
“Most of the delegates were saying, let’s start with the first task. Let’s deal with the issues and then we talk about leadership.”
Tau dismissed claims that the ANC was becoming irrelevant, saying it was still an important roleplayer in the country.
“The ANC remains relevant. It has a critical role to play in South Africa, but it has to confront the issues it has and to reassure the people of our commitment to build a national democratic society.”
In his address during the ANC’s regional consultative conference in Nelson Mandela Bay over the weekend, former president Kgalema Motlanthe warned the party that if it did not get its house in order, it faced becoming irrelevant.
Motlanthe compared the ANC to other African liberation movements who lost their hegemony after they had been in power for 20 years.
During the funeral of former sports minister Stofile in August, Pityana said the ANC’s lack of accountable leadership resulted in it losing metros to the opposition in the local government elections.
“That our movement is in crisis is trite and it is beyond question. If you doubted it, look at what happened in the local government elections,” he said. – News24
