Motlanthe: ‘Failed leaders must step down’

ANC leaders need to acknowledge when they are wrong and must have the conscience to step down to avoid further discrediting the party, says the party’s former deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe.

In an exclusive interview with City Press on Friday, Motlanthe spoke critically about the state of the ANC, saying people were doing as they pleased in the party.

He warned that this would lead to a decline in the standing and prestige of the party.

Motlanthe emphasised that it was time for young people to be brought forward to lead the party, as they could bring fresh, radical ideas for change.

He said leaders should take their cue from former national executive committee (NEC) member Pallo Jordan, who ­resigned from leadership structures and Parliament when his integrity was compromised after it emerged that he had lied about his qualifications.

He said Jordan knew he was no longer viewed as honourable and could not hold anyone else in the ANC to account, since his image had been tainted.

“It takes courage for people to own up to their mistakes ... Jordan knew that when he stepped outside of set procedure, there had to be consequences. He knew he could no longer sit in the NEC and hold others accountable.

“It is all about what your conscience tells you. You will remain compromised unless you own up and take ­responsibility for it,” he said.

“You can’t be a leader exercising leadership, and guide others and hold them accountable, if you have no ability to do so to yourself.”

Motlanthe’s comments come amid growing calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down. The ANC has found itself having to constantly defend Zuma on controversies such as the overspending on his Nkandla home, links to the Gupta family and other controversial businesspeople, along with numerous other questionable decisions and utterances.

Asked if the calls for President Zuma to step down were warranted, Motlanthe would only say that “when we lower the bar, it means we settle for the lowest option”.

“In terms of the national cause, you don’t have to play politics about it.”

In a renewed call for honing young people to be allowed to lead the organisation, Motlanthe said the ANC had gone far off the rails and needed a younger person to bring the party back in line.

In comments that could be interpreted as a rejection of calls that he should contest the position in 2017, Motlanthe ruled himself out of the race.

Some ANC branches and youth structures have raised his name as the person to succeed Zuma, arguing he was the only leader whose reputation was not tainted.

Motlanthe said the one thing the governing party should not do was recycle the old guard.

“Once you have been there when you had the privilege, you light some fires that sustain hope and shine light on the way forward.

“But once you are out ... to go back ... you go back as ash, and you may even choke the fire that you lit when you were there before.

“So tomorrow belongs to the youth, and I did say that the best way of training young people is to give them responsibilities and guide them ... supervise them.”

His sentiments fly in the face of intensified calls for African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma or current deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, who are both in their sixties, to take over from Zuma.

An informal grouping in the ANC known as the Premier League started a lobby last year for Dlamini-Zuma.

But Motlanthe insists that “you can’t rely on yesterday’s solutions for today’s problems. It doesn’t work.”

He also warned against the dangers of interference on the issue of succession by some within the governing party who wanted to impose leaders instead of allowing internal democracy to thrive.

Motlanthe said informal networks, “which were not even worth a remark”, undermined the will of the people at branch level.

“What’s happening now is a reaction to how far off the rails we have gone,” he said

At a zonal youth league meeting in Johannesburg, where he spoke as the head of the ANC’s political school, Motlanthe steered away from the succession debate, saying that league members should have a sense of occasion, instead of raising the wrong issues on the wrong platforms.

Motlanthe commented that when the ANC shied away from the truth and somersaulted on controversial issues such as Nkandla, it created a credibility gap.

“That’s what discredits the organisation.”

He said the Nkandla matter could have been handled ­better. “It did not even need an integrity committee to give guidance, but is for a leader to have a conscience.”

Motlanthe said he would do everything in his power to inculcate into the membership of the ANC, particularly the youth, the desire to live by the truth all the time.

Motlanthe said there were excellent members of the ANC who could not countenance wrongdoing.

“The problem, however, is the fact that politics of the stomach [people looking after personal interests] reigns ­supreme in the ANC and people resort to defending even when something is wrong, or they speak in hushed tones.

“The system works that way, and that’s why younger ­members who have not been gobbled up by the system are a better agency to take us forward.”

On the alleged state influence of the prominent Gupta ­family, Motlanthe said that no judicial inquiry could fix the ­problem, but that issues needed to be dealt with directly.

“A judicial inquiry on state capture will be a waste. We can’t create commissions whenever there are problems. We need to face the problems and deal with them, instead of creating bodies.”