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ANC top leadership
Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu says allowing African National Congress (ANC) members in good standing to elect their president as opposed to being the only preserve of delegates to elective conferences will not change the party’s electoral fortunes.
He says the ANC problems revolve around failures to implement its own crafted policies and adopted resolutions, as well as the failure to rid itself of factionalism.
This follows the mooted constitutional amendment by the delegates at the recently concluded National General Council, where they have resolved that party members across the country should be allowed to elect their leadership.
The ANC delegates at their recently concluded National General Council have mooted a raft of policy proposals and constitutional amendments for the party as it heads to its 56th National Conference in the next two years.
A Member of the ANC Constitutional and Legal Affairs Andries Nel says delegates want the ANC president to be elected by all party members in good standing to avoid gate-keeping and vote buying.
”The areas that we have discussed and again this was at a very high level is firstly the introduction of the system of One Member One Vote, so that the election of ANC leadership takes place through a system in which each and every ANC member in good standing has the right to vote but we don’t vote through delegates which experience has taught that it is a system open to all sorts of abuse and manipulation.”
This is part of the 12 constitutional amendments proposed at the four-day gathering in a bid to renew the party by ridding it of corruption and make it appealing to the voters as it prepares for the 2026 local polls.
But Professor Mngomezulu says the mooted changes won’t change anything as ANC challenges to attract voters are centred around its failures to correct and not around the election of leaders.
”The damage is too much, you cannot solve it by just changing the constitution, and say people must elect their leaders directly, because the problems are not necessarily revolving around leadership election. They have more to do with failure to implement policies that have been crafted by the ANC and failure to implement resolutions that have been adopted by the ANC. The other one, which is the main issue, is factionalism, which has nothing to do with how they elect their leaders.”
He says that, as much as the intentions are good, they will mean nothing as long as the party doesn’t deal with endemic corruption and entrenched factionalism.
Professor Mngomezulu adds, ”Hypothetically speaking if you quote-end-quote right faction you will emerge as a leader even if you have nothing to show as a leader and then if quote-end-quote if you are in a wrong faction it doesn’t matter how capable you will be afforded an opportunity to lead so for me the priorities are wrong the intention is okay but the priorities are wrong.”
All the policy proposals and constitutional amendments will now be tabled at the next National Conference in 2027 for intense deliberations and adoption.
