President calls for an end to factionalism
"In the ANC, our task now is to build unity and get rid of all the factions".
Lolo Madonsela
President of the African National Congress, Cyril Ramaphosa has made a strong call to end factionalism within the party, this building united and renewing the party.
President Ramaphosa spoke about factions, unity, corruption and gatekeeping during his memorial lecture on anti-apartheid activist, Raymond Mhlaba in Vryheid on Sunday.
He stated Mhlaba was not a ‘factionalist’. “He was not like some among us who love to divide our organisation; work with factions. In the ANC, our task now is to build unity and get rid of all the factions. There should not be people who will say they belong to somebody, as all of us must only be people of the ANC, not of the individuals.”
Ramaphosa admitted there was division within the ANC before and after the party’s National Conference, but applauded ANC in KwaZulu-Natal for demonstrating unity and forging ahead in renewing the party.
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“Here in KZN, you have demonstrated you are capable of building unity. When we came back from the Nasrec conference, the organisation was divided countrywide but here in KZN, you showed great leadership. You showed the way forward and you gave leadership by demonstrating that even though we were divided when we went to the conference, you came back and said ‘we want to build unity and we are going to build unity around you as our President’, and you have managed to do that. I am grateful. You also build unity around the leadership you elected here and that leadership continues to build unity in this province.”
President Ramaphosa added KZN had shown the way for the ANC as a whole.
“The ANC in KZN is active and working, and your leaders are continuously building. Even at branch level, they are very active, working hard and are involved within communities.”
The President did allude to corruption which he said was weakening the ANC and its allies. “Those who are supposed to be working for the people are more concerned about how are they going to steal the money. It can be at national Government level, provincial or even at the municipalities; we are saying those who are preparing themselves to steal money should stop it and work for the people. Those people stand also in a way of growth, development and poverty alleviation projects we have. They stand in a way of broad-based black economic empowerment and the development of small striving businesses… If we do not do something about it, corruption will ultimately also destroy the ANC. Corruption is our struggle by those who seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.” President Ramaphosa further said corruption undermined economic and social development, eroded democratic practices, disempowered residents and weakened both racial revolution and liberation movements.
Corruption and the associated phenomenon of state capture, he continued, were obstacles hindering the achieving of radical economic transformation.
“Those that we have put in higher positions, instead of working for the community, are busy stealing money and taking us backwards. We are saying corruption must come to an end. We need to be taking steps in fighting corruption and we already seeing a lot of progress within our own ranks. It also calls for concerted action from all structures and leaders in our movement. It requires we examine our own behaviour and act only in the interest of the people of SA. This means we must defend and embrace all the values ‘Oom Ray’ stood for and lived for. We must emulate the honesty, the humility, the discipline and the passion for the people which truly defines the way ‘Oom Ray’ approached the issues of leadership.” In closing, Ramaphosa encouraged ANC branches to continue their work, with the party now preparing for the municipal elections next year. He believes branches of the ANC needed to be strengthened in the 18 months before the local government elections, and called on his party to defend from those opposed to its objectives and eradicate opportunists and counter-revolutionaries. “Most importantly, we must work tirelessly to serve the people and strengthen the bonds between our movement and the people we serve. It is through these and other efforts where we should aim to be serving the people of our country as Raymond Mhlaba himself did. Members of the ANC must confront all forms of ill-discipline among us. We must also confront this disease we call patronage, gatekeeping and vote buying.”
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