Mbalula: Only people with impeccable credentials should be elected

Wearing his hat as a member of the ANC’s national executive committee, Fikile Mbalula yesterday laid out the party’s organisational renewal and design discussion document to be debated at the upcoming national policy conference from June 30.

“Cadres who make themselves available for public office or are nominated must be prepared for their names and manifestos to be subjected to the scrutiny of the ANC structures and their constituencies,” the police minister said.

Only people with impeccable credentials should be elected to leadership positions within the organisation, Mbalula said.

“The Revolutionary Electoral Commission that must be established post conference, as per previous resolution, will ensure the screening of cadres and recommending to the deployment committee ideologically grounded and intellectually developed cadres for servicing the people of South Africa.”

The organisation was hammered in last year’s local government elections and continued to be excoriated over ongoing allegations of corruption.

“The 53rd conference of the ANC in Mangaung elaborated on the strengths and weaknesses of the movement and arrived at the conclusion that there is a need for the movement to embark on organisational renewal,” Mbalula said.

He noted the discussion document put the view forward that conditions under which the ANC operated had changed.

“We are of the view that the ANC can renew itself without losing its traditional outlook,” said Mbalula. He pointed to three challenges which had continued to “bedevil” the ANC since 1994.

These were the impact of state power on the party, internal strife and factional battles for power, and that its systems and processes did not match “the tasks and demands of the current phase of the revolution”.

Mbalula spoke about doing away with the slate system, which puts forward candidates for leadership in the ANC despite no one knowing who they were. “The ANC needs, as a matter of urgency, to review its electoral processes in order to allow for open contests and transparency,” he said.

– amandaw@citizen.co.za