The ANC Youth League is calling for the ANC to adopt a system of “electing and selecting” leadership akin to the Communist Party of China to avoid another Jacob Zuma in the future.
This is according to ANCYL secretary-general, Mntuwoxolo Ngudle, who was speaking to Sunday World Engage this week.
Ngudle said the election of Zuma as ANC president in 2007 at the watershed Polokwane conference was the “biggest mistake” the ANC ever committed.
To avoid this situation from repeating itself in the future, he charged, the ANC must review how it elects its leaders.
In Ngudle’s view, all the degeneracy that is endemic in the ANC today was brought about by the election of Zuma to the helm of the party.
The divisions and factions that are wreaking havoc in the ANC today, he said, were birthed by the Zuma-led ANC. Zuma thrives in chaos, which is against ANC values and principles, but it will take years to rid the ANC of his cancer, he said.
According to Ngudle, the ANC must do a deep dive into the character of Zuma and answer the question of whether or not he was planted in the party to finish it off once and for all.
“Post Polokwane was a period of political and ideological decline, and that period was characterised by divisions – the splinter of Cope, later divisions in Cosatu and Numsa leaving, and later the Youth League being disbanded.
“In our view, these divisions were championed by people who appear to have been sent to divide the movement to become the disarray it became over the period of president Zuma at the helm,” he said.
“Look at what he did in the ANC, the youth league, Cosatu, and so on, and now he has opened a party. What was the purpose of this comrade when he was at the helm of the ANC?
“We are feeling the Polokwane mistake now. An organisation as big as the ANC can expect such mistakes but we are learning from them. That is why we are beginning to discuss whether or not we should go the route of the CPC’s elections and selection of leadership.”
Ngudle believes that placing the responsibility to elect quality leadership on the rank-and-file membership comes with serious shortcomings.
As if that is not bad enough, the influence of money in internal party contests has worsened the situation and resulted in the ilk of Zuma becoming leaders without anything qualitative to offer.
“You can see that this fellow has no semblance of political and ideological training or clarity on any other issue, but he is called a leader because he has a lot of money,” he said.
“With money, you can have such mistakes as president Zuma, who is really mediocre.
“He has an intellectual inferiority complex, and he fights everybody and sees everyone as his enemy; that is a very bad attribute.”
Because of Zuma, Ngudle added, the party must have a focused approach to “cadre development and political training” to separate quality from quantity among its members.
“If such infiltration of the ANC can go to such a level of [someone] becoming the president of the organisation, we really have to rethink our election of leaders in order for the movement not to be hijacked by wrong elements like Zuma.”
Ngudle believes it is tantamount to daydreaming to suggest that the MK Party Zuma leads will dislodge the ANC from power. However, he admitted it will cause a serious dent owing to “crude elements” that Zuma has always thrived on from his time in the ANC.
“Democracy is funny because there are people like Zuma who believe in chaos who can emerge as leaders, and I am annoyed when I see people supporting people who are fooling them point blank.”
