Mashatile slams ANC leaders publicly campaigning for positions

African National Congress Gauteng chairperson Paul Mashatile has reportedly criticised leaders of the governing party who have been publicly campaigning to lead the ANC ahead of its much-anticipated leadership elective conference in December.

Mashatile, speaking at the gathering of the MK Council on Saturday in Nasrec, Soweto, said leaders campaigning to succeed Jacob Zuma as party president at the upcoming conference must wait to be told if they meet criteria by the ANC, TimesLIVE reported.

“..I think we must be very clear about the criteria of leaders we want to elect in December before people start putting names there. I see there are already some people who have started campaigning‚ but we have not told them yet whether they meet the criteria so they must wait‚” Mashatile said.

He added: “Let’s tighten up the criteria‚ then when the criteria is clear‚ we will see whether or not you fit‚ not the other way round.”

Mashatile’s comments come as some of the ANC’s structures and provinces have already made pronouncements on the leadership race, which the party’s national leaders at Luthuli House have struggled to control over the last few months.

The Council‚ which includes former generals and commissars of the ANC’s former military wing is holding a national assembly this weekend, according to the report.

Mashatile also spoke about denialism and a lack of courage in the party to deal decisively with the crisis facing it, saying the ANC had to take serious steps ahead of and beyond a national consultative conference called for by the party’s stalwarts.

The conference has been set aside for two days as part of the ANC’s national policy conference in June. The stalwarts had initially asked to have a separate consultative conference from the policy conference, but the ANC refused to cede to their request.

“We must root out factionalism‚ greed and ill-discipline from the alliance. We must also defeat the demon of slates that allow for mediocre leaders to lead the ANC‚” he said.

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