ANC provincial chairperson in Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi said the departure of Floyd Shivambu from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) should be analysed in a context that can strengthen the presence of the African National Congress.
Lesufi, who is also Gauteng premier, addressed the ANC’s two-day provincial executive committee (PEC) lekgotla in Ekurhuleni over the weekend.
“Reality is that the departure of EFF deputy president, comrade Floyd Shivambu, to the MK (uMkhonto weSizwe) party, it cannot be seen as a nonentity,” Lesufi said addressing the delegates.
“It is a historic event and as the leadership of the ANC, we must analyse it in a manner that will strengthen the presence of the ANC,” he said.
“If we are going to be quick to celebrate the departure of comrade Floyd from the EFF, we will forget that ourselves we are going through a departure of members of the ANC to MK party, that we are still going through that particular process,” Lesufi said.
“So we must manage these departures in a manner that we don’t get easily excited. We might be experienced, when UDM was formed, they came out of this political party called African National Congress. COPE came out of this political party, when MK party was formed they came out of this political party,” he said.
“So the departure of comrade Floyd from EFF is a double-edged sword that we need to manage carefully. I want to urge you comrades, our concentration must not be on those political parties.”
Lesufi said the “obsession” of the ANC must be on winning over the hearts of South Africans.
“What it means is that we must concentrate on bringing organisations or labour movements or social movements like Numsa (National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa) to come back to the revolutionary fold, and be persuaded to be part of the progressive forces of our people. We must not leave any movement outside comrades,” he said.
Lesufi said even churches and other religious organisations which drifted to the newly-formed MK party must be brought back into the ANC alliance.
He however said there are lessons from Shivambu’s shock departure from the red party which he co-founded more than a decade ago.
“We must learn what I call maintenance of generational mix, that the leadership of every political party, we must have a generational mix,” he said.
“This thing of saying we are friends of this generation and we are in charge here is wrong because when we are at loggerheads over own issues, we collapse a movement. The importance of generational mix has been reaffirmed by the departure of deputy president of EFF,” said Lesufi.
“The second lesson is that we will suffer the pain, and we need to move with speed to ensure that we conclude all the outstanding discussions. One crucial matter is that deputy president of EFF was the leader of negotiations with us in this province. He led the establishment of this government that we have, the provincial government.”
Lesufi said the leadership of the EFF also played a role in the ANC regaining the mayoral position in the City of Joburg last week.
Last week, IOL reported that the ANC’s Dada Morero was officially elected as executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg for the second time - in a dramatic fashion.
Just when the special council sitting thought it would be easy sailing, and Morero would be elected unopposed, the DA threw the cat amongst the pigeons and nominated its caucus leader, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku from the floor.
IOL