The African National Congress (ANC) will wrap up its back-to-back National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting and the Lekgotla in Boksburg east of Johannesburg later today. The six-day gathering was called to reflect on the outcomes of the elections and the program of action for the next year.
Several ANC NEC members are billed to brief the media on crime and GBV, immigration, local government intervention and water issues as well as inclusive growth, job creation, investing in people and tackling the high cost of living among others.
Alliance partners Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) have also made their contributions to the NEC Lekgotla and used the opportunity to raise their opposition against the government of national unity (GNU).
But ANC acting spokesperson Zuko Godlimpi says they will have to find each other on that issue.
“When the alliance spoke, they were quite militant on their view and that’s what we want. We want people to sit in one room and say we disagree with you on 1,2,3. This is our reading of the situation and we think these are the implications of the tactical move that you are making.”
“But it doesn’t mean when the alliance members say this is their view the best way for the ANC to demonstrate that we are listening then we have to abandon the ANC and just take what the alliance partner is saying. We have got to try to synthesize this, eventually we will find each other. We will have a common understanding,” adds Godlimpi.
Earlier, the ANC said the failure to get the economy working for all South Africans has the potential to undermine the credibility of the democratic order.
Speaking to the media on the second day of the Lekgotla, Godlimpi said an economy that is not inclusive could lead to further voter apathy and cause people to lose interest in the country’s democratic project.
“The loudest message coming out of the election is that we have got to get the SA economy and if we don’t have it working, the credibility of the entire democratic order is at stake. This is reflected of course by the fact that the eligible people who should be voting, some of whom are not even registered and some of them registered but don’t show up at the polls.”
“So the concern is that if you don’t fix the national economy and get it to work in a way that is inclusive, you are having a sort of a systematic pull-back by a large cohort of South African citizens from the democratic process,” he adds
Source: eNCA
