Former ANC president Thabo Mbeki says it is not true that KwaZulu-Natal voters vote along tribal lines. Instead, voters have been punishing the ANC for failing to keep it’s promises to the electorate.
The former president was reacting to comments attributed to ANC Youth League president Collen Malatji.
Speaking while campaigning in Pietermaritzburg yesterday, Mbeki said: “I don’t think it has got to do anything with who leads the ANC, it’s got to do with the performance of the ANC itself.
“I think the people are responding to that and that’s why I’m insisting on this thing that I can’t just go to the population and say vote ANC and stop there.
“I must say vote ANC, but I must add to that and say the ANC I’m saying you must vote for is an ANC that must be able to discharge its responsibilities to the people.
“So I don’t think really it matters who’s a leader, the population is not responding to that, the population of KZN are responding what the ANC is doing.”
It was under Mbeki that the ANC took over KwaZulu-Natal through a coalition government. Even though the IFP had been in control of the province since 1994, it had never won an overwhelming majority.
The talk of voting patterns came after former ANC president Jacob Zuma established the MK Party. Recent polls suggest it is more popular in KZN than in any other province.
The ANC this week deployed its senior leaders to the province to counter any encroachment on its voter base.
Mbeki visited the Heroes’ Acre in Imbali township where former SACP general secretary Moses Mabhida is buried. He also conducted a walkabout at the Edendale Mall, which was rebuilt after being destroyed during the 2021 July riots.
Mbeki said the ANC had to make sure that it deployed capable people in positions of power. The party was declining because people felt it had been making empty promises.
“We really have to make sure that the ANC, when it makes promises like it has done in its manifesto, that it actually does implement them,” said Mbeki. “So we have to look at the ANC itself. That if you’ve a Thabo Mbeki who is sitting there and is useless, remove him so that you can put somebody who is useful who’s going to do the things that are necessary.”
He said the ANC had survived because it delivered on its promises.
“Whether there were elections or no elections, we’ve had to look at the ANC to make sure that it lives up to what it says. This is an old organisation, it’s 112 years old, and the reason it survived for more than a century is because it always did what it said to the people it would do,” he said.
“So we must make sure that people regain that confidence. So if you say you are going to solve water problems you solve it, we’re going to solve the energy problem, let’s solve it.”
He said it was up to veterans such as himself, who were not interested in positions, to make sure the ANC goes back to those qualities.
“I’m sure it’s the responsibility of people like myself who are old now, not looking for positions, to make sure that the ANC does live up to the image, otherwise these problems won’t be solved, if this instrument is not empowered and organised honestly” he said.
“And it can’t carry in it people whose hearts are not in that job. Maybe because it’s employment creation for themselves, but it can’t succeed if it carries people like that. It must carry people who are committed to serve people of South Africa. And that’s what we’ve got to do, make sure that the ANC is of that kind.”
This, he said, was one of the things he told the ANC leaders before he started campaigning and they promised him the party was being renewed and that’s when he agreed to campaign.
“I’ve said so to the leadership of the ANC that it’s not an obligation we owe to any particular individual, we owe it to the people and we owe it even to the ANC itself. We can’t betray the ANC by doing wrong things,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to the leadership and they know my view. I’ve been insisting that this question of the renewal of the ANC is critical to make sure the ANC becomes of the kind that I’m talking about. And the leadership of the ANC has not said to me 'shut up'. I said that we have to do this thing and they said go and campaign.”
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