“We must help bring back the glory days of the ANC” says Premier Mathabatha
Limpopo Premier, Stanley Mathabatha opened the party's Provincial General Council on Sunday in preparation for the National Policy Conference to be held later this week in Gauteng.
POLOKWANE – During the opening he stressed that preparations for the policy conference and the national conference took place at a time when the organisation is faced with ill-health.
“The ANC is not in good shape,” he said.
The meeting was held to consolidate the provincial perspective on policy matters and was attended by national and provincial executive committee members. The national conference is an important assembly that reviews ANC policy and makes recommendations on amendments or new policies to the national conference.
“Whatever contribution we are to make at this policy conference should be aimed at restoring the ANC to good shape and health.
“We must send out a message to those who have already foretold the immediate death of our movement that the ANC shall live long enough to deliver roses at their own burials. We must go to this policy conference to re-awaken the giant.”
Mathabatha said the starting point to do this is to correctly diagnose the party’s challenges, adding that was not going to be a simple exercise to self-diagnose. “If we have listened to some of the concerns of our people during the door-to-door campaigns for local government elections, however, we shouldn’t struggle to find a correct diagnosis.”
Issues identified during the door-to-door campaigns comprised the social distance between ANC leaders and the people they lead, people unhappy with the manipulation of processes by those entrusted with the important duty to oversee organisational processes, corruption in government and other state institutions and people believing that the ANC has been hijacked by self-serving tendencies and no longer working to address their plight.
Issues expected to dominate the policy conference were views about the re-design of organisational structures, increasing the number of officials in the NEC, and a debate about ‘strengthening the office of the president’.”
He said misdiagnosing the issues the wrong medication will be prescribed, and “with a wrong medication we are assured of a prolonged illness, resulting in death”.
“We therefore should use this PGC to make an honest assessment of what our challenges and weaknesses are. We must do this even if the truth about ourselves is painful to confront.”
