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ANC national executive committee member Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane believes that the governing party needs to go back to the drawing board to create a strategy for providing services to people who have never received them, while simultaneously maintaining existing services.
Speaking to City Press on the sidelines of a community meeting in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal last week, Kubayi-Ngubane, who is also the minister of science and technology, said she was acknowledging what was revealed to be a growing challenge for the ANC during door-to-door campaigns.
“What I have picked up on now is that we gave services and built houses in the early 1990s. Some of those RDP houses are collapsing, because it has been a whole lifespan [since they were erected]. Perhaps we need to start thinking about the sustainable interventions we can make.
“When I was working at the presidency, we had something called ‘the war on poverty’, [which entailed] identifying somebody who could be developed and provided with an education, and who could carry the family. Maybe it is a concept we should come back to as the ANC – because, after 20 years of our having provided a service, it requires maintenance and upgrading. So, you can never do enough.
“But if you have change agents who go and work and can come back and carry the family, it would be helpful. Where renovations need to be done, that person can assist.
“The strategy, as we mature as a democracy, needs to change. Many of our people have been given the services; now it is about maintaining these services. This is what we are being confronted with this time around – something that was not necessarily there in the last two elections.”
Kubayi-Ngubane said the overwhelming need from people she spoke to last week was for jobs.
She added that progress had been made by the ANC in delivering services to the majority of South Africans.
“If you go to countries that gained independence before us, we are far ahead in terms of providing services, in terms of development,” she said.
“People from the US and other countries are shocked at our progress, so we really have done well. But it is good for us to be critical. We should never become complacent. As long as there is one person who still lacks something, we must be uncomfortable. That is the message.
“Almost 95% of people in South Africa have access to electricity. It is a huge achievement, but we can never become complacent about it. There are certain places where there are challenges in terms of infrastructure, so we need to be creative and find non-grid solutions.”
Regarding the mushrooming of political formations with similar names to the ANC, Kubayi-Ngubane said it was a deliberate strategy, which the ANC would have to counter with political education.
“It is done deliberately. They have learnt from the African Independent Congress (AIC) – that is how that party got into Parliament. We still believe that the AIC stole our votes, so others are hoping that if they keep on with that trend, many people will be misled.
“We hope that by educating ANC members, we can prevent this from happening. We must inform people that there are many parties [contesting elections]. They must be conscientised. We never had so many parties in the early days, so we need to emphasise that people must look for the ANC, the face of the ANC president and the ANC logo.”
The Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) announced last week that 285 political parties had registered with it for this year’s general elections thus far – with other applications still pending.
Last year, former ANC MP Makhosi Khoza formed the African Democratic Change party before announcing her decision to step down from politics.
Recently, former SABC chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng launched the African Content Movement.
And it emerged last week that former Government Communication and Information System boss Mzwanele Manyi had been part of a new formation, the All African Decolonisation Congress, but had subsequently parted ways with them in favour of the African Transformation Movement, a party headed by a top brass of KwaZulu-Natal’s clergy who have been fierce defenders of former president Jacob Zuma.
Despite these developments, Kubayi-Ngubane remains steadfast in her belief in an ANC victory: “We are a liberation movement of 107 years. If anyone thinks they can just arrive and wash us out, they are dreaming. But we are not arrogant about it; we need to continuously listen and reflect.
