The ANC is banking on its weeklong high level meeting held in Boksburg to come up with a recovery plan following a rather disappointing performance in the recent general elections which saw the party lose its parliamentary majority for the first time.
The gathering started as an ordinary meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee ( the highest decision making structure in between conferences) on Thursday and then an extended Lekgotla that started on Tuesday and was expected to run until Tuesday.
The party identified several factors as having contributed to the poor performance:
- The Zuma factor=the impact of Jacob Zuma’s MK Party which won well over 2 million votes causing significant dent on the support of not just the ANC but the EFF and IFP as well.
- Loss of touch with voters
- Lack of economic growth including failure to implement transformative policies
- government failures=poor service delivery
- Corruption
- Illdiscipline in the ANC
“Leaders and public representatives must be held accountable,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa in his opening speech to the Lekgotla on Sunday.
The party said basic service delivery issues which are largely the responsibility of municipalities but were brought up on the campaign trail.
“South Africans are no longer interested in the distinction between the different spheres of government. They are making the moral argument that it’s one state and one government, the problems must be attended to by everybody. That’s why the President said yesterday that the ANC is now going to focus very seriously on the local government sphere, starting with Johannesburg,” said Acting National Spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi during a media briefing on the sidelines of the Lekgotla.
Lack of discipline has been an issue for some time in the ANC with the Zuma issue probably being the biggest test for the party since the expulsion of Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu who were then President and Deputy President of the ANC Youth League.
Perceptions are that the jailing of Zuma turned him into a victim and cost the ANC support. The ANC recently expelled Zuma who is not taking it lying down. The ANC’s Head of Political Education who is also a member of the National Executive Committee David Makhura said the party will not be held at ransom when it comes to discipline.
“We can’t be held at ransom by outsiders. We have been too tolerant of wrongdoers and now we’re going to have to show our members that we are serious,” said Makhura.