WATCH: Mbeki highlights weaknesses in ANC election campaign

With less than a month before the national and provincial elections, former African National Congress (ANC) president Thabo Mbeki has highlighted weaknesses in the governing party’s election campaign.

Mbeki was speaking on the sidelines of his election campaign in Tshwane on Saturday.   

South Africans will head to the polls on May 29 in what is expected to be the most hotly contest polls since the dawn of democracy.

Watch Thabo Mbeki speaking about the weakness of the ANC’s election campaign

ANC campaign failing

Mbeki said the ANC’s campaign is failing to address challenges currently faced by citizens.

“From what I’ve seen, I’m glad there is a lot of activity, a lot of campaigning by the ANC, but there are some shortcomings. You can see, it’s very visible, I think there’s not enough ANC posters in the streets.”

Mbeki also said there isn’t enough ANC posters to communicate with the people.

“I think that matter the ANC needs to correct. I think also we say these are the successes we’ve made over the last 30 years, that is correct. But the real challenge is that there is somebody who lives today who says ‘I’m unemployed, I’m hungry, I have no water.’”

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Mbeki stressed that these challenges must be addressed by the ANC.

“In the ANC campaign, we’ve got to address these challenges that the people make, and make commitments about those challenges, commitments that we are determined to fulfil, not just to make promises.”

National convention

Mbeki said he made a suggestion to the ANC to convene a national convention after the elections to address the country’s problems.

“Fortunately comrade President Ramaphosa has accepted this, that after the elections, we must call a national convention to get all the nation together, everybody, political parties, civil society, trade unions, business, church people, religious, everybody, so together we must be able to say ‘how do we attend to all of the problems that has happened during the last thirty years.

“It doesn’t matter who gets elected, the country must get together to say ‘what do we so to solve all of these problems’ and I think that’s what will take our country out of the problems that it has,” Mbeki said.

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