Personalities and egos dividing the ANC, says Mantashe

National chairperson of the African National Congress (ANC) Gwede Mantashe has called on fellow comrades to make a positive contribution to the ruling party if they want to see it succeed.

Addressing the Amathole regional conference in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday, Mantashe reminded comrades to always do what’s best for the people, and not put politicians above the people they’re supposed to be serving.

He recalled an instance when this happened in the Amathole region where they were asked for three mayoral candidates and they submitted “one name and two tikoloshes”.

“We [leadership] kept quiet and gave them one of the tikoloshes to be their mayor,” said Mantashe in isiXhosa.

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The leadership in the region later complained about the same candidate they had chosen.

Mantashe urged comrades to “purposely elect comrades with the intention that they will perform because they have the capacity to execute.

“The realisation we must appreciate is that good services will close the trust deficit between the people and the ANC. The trust deficit is so big that when we enter in some places they say the thieves are here. It doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you’re ANC. We need officials that have the capacity to resist and reject irregular instructions from the leadership. People must be at the centre of what we do, it cannot be about leaders. It has to be about fulfilling the desires of the people.”

Mantashe further warned the Eastern Cape ANC to not be in denial about the results of the recent local government elections where the ruling party failed to get 50% of the national vote.

“Did all the regions in the province do well? We need to identify areas that did not do well so we can focus on them,” he said.

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He also encouraged those who might contest for positions to not take their losses personally.

“We must come to the conference united more than before because it’s necessary and if you don’t get elected it’s not because you’re hated , you were just not chosen. Everyone elected to leadership positions must bring an attribute that will benefit the collective. What brings us together is the agreement on the values of the ANC, and the resolutions of the ANC. Those unite us. What divides us as a movement is personalities and egos.”