Jeff Radebe
THE results of the 2024 provincial and national elections have sent shock waves throughout the political ecosystem.
The ANC moved from 63 per cent in 1994 to a high of 65 per cent in 2009 and now to a mere 40 per cent nationally. In KwaZulu-Natal, the ANC moved from 31 percent in 1994 to 62 percent in 2009 and now we slipped to 17 percent in 2024. This means our KZN ANC component has had its overall support base decline from 20 per cent ten years ago to 10 per cent today.
These disastrous election outcomes largely reflect that the ANC has become increasingly alienated from the communities we serve, with many parts of our government becoming arrogant.
As we reflected on why we lost the elections, it was ordinary people who told us that we had lost our way and they are the ones telling us to renew, to change, to humble ourselves as we rebuild our structures to be instruments for communities, rather than instruments for elections.
That is why our reconstituted team has been designed by the NEC to be inclusive and focused on mobilising people rather than inviting them to internal election meetings.
And so we know that recovering our voting support base will require:
- An ANC promoting transparent government which is developmentally oriented and which has competent officials serving our people,
- Stopping all of those raiding the government’s finances through corrupt actions.
- An ANC engaging directly with our people at a community level as we rebuild our branches, and
- Harsh consequence management where there are transgressions regardless of who is involved.
Our task as the new Leadership Core may seem complex and large, but we know that we can turn our support base around by sticking to the basics. These include in the first instance retaining our existing support base and regaining the support of those ANC supporters who voted against us in 2024. We will invite them to join our membership as we revitalize our branches. But in the second instance, we must engage with all who live in our communities and must be active in building structures of civil society, including respecting our Traditional Leadership and Religious Sector.
Whilst our renewal programme has been in place for several years, it is clear that the most basic level of our organization – the branches – need significant attention to reinvigorate them to become instruments working for communities rather than at times inward focusing on issues like who becomes the councillor, etc.
To do this we have established subcommittees to engage with and about communities of interest such as gender and economic transformation, education and health, safety and security, international relations, etc who will reach out to help champion these areas.
The team is also deployed across the whole province to work with governance and other issues in the 10 regions and eThekwini. In all of this, we aim to reach out to the private and public sectors and community-based structures to work with them in the progressive causes they lead. And in all of this, we want to see change and a focus on solving problems and implementing these solutions.
We will also work very closely to turn around the major municipalities in our province in which the ANC plays a major role. We cannot have the 8 largest municipalities not spending R7,5 billion of their adjusted budget in 2023/24 and R2,6 billion unspent in planned capital works.
We cannot have some 40 out of 54 municipalities listed by the National Treasury as having serious financial problems which should lead to interventions.
We will be calling on all our ANC Councillors to work closely with like-minded parties to turn the situation around.
This Leadership Core that I lead is ready to deal decisively with internal challenges such as factionalism and corrupt practices and people have no place in this new collective. We will not allow anyone to use their leadership positions to gain material advantage by any corrupt means.
We are all committed to rebuilding the ANC, working closely with our allies and all progressive forces to ensure that we build a better KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and the world.
We know the challenges we face as a country and whatever we do must continue to show the world that we are not scared to face up to the economic, social and environmental challenges currently facing the world.
We are committed to the founding principles of renewal.
All must lead through example, they must be active members of the ANC in good standing, and they must know the Constitution and Policies of the ANC. They must not act as Leaders but as People’s Champions. Communities must come first, community-based development must be prioritized and they must build social cohesion at a local level.
I am fortunate to have been asked to convene this group of ANC activists. We have all played important leadership roles, in many different areas for the ANC to date. But our current project is not about us as leaders, but it is about us acting to serve the communities we disappointed. And this is what we will do in the days and months ahead.
I am proud that the ANC Leadership, recognizing our mistakes, has called upon us to pick up the spear and return our party, the ANC, to being one that is community-based, service-oriented and works collectively to address the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
* Jeff Radebe is the Convenor of the ANC KZN Provincial Task Team.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.