Durban – Newly elected deputy president of the ANC Veterans League Dr Mavuso Msimang says a number of policy issues were discussed at the weekend’s elective conference, including the policy on organising and campaigns and the need to develop a framework on coalitions.
Snuki Zikalala was elected as the president of the league, Msimang is his deputy, the secretary-general is Ilva Mackay Langa, deputy secretary-general is Connie September and the treasurer-general is Fazel Randera.
“I do think we laid a strong foundation for the Veteran’s League that we have been tasked to construct, we looked at issues on what an ANC ought to look like in terms of geographical representation (regarding) national members and the executive. In terms of cultural and race issues we are all South Africans and as long as we are competent and committed we should find room in the effort to advance the needs of the country,” Msimang told the SABC.
“It was a robust discussion, it showed a lot of maturity and a lot of humility. The president said to people that we had a right to make our views heard and there is a need for these views to be heard by the leadership of the organisation and we hope that it will be heard.”
Msimang said the discussion around renewal must look at what would constitute it
“We have lost a lot of credibility with the voters, the nation and the reason for that is that we have been seen to be highly tolerant of corruption, a lot of wrong things have happened to the economy as a result of a number of things.”
Msimang said this included the deployment of people who are not competent, allowing corruption to take root, resulting in the collapse of Eskom, Transnet, high crime and high unemployment.
“All of this is happening on our watch and we said how do we renew ourselves and this is eminently possible but it requires a little bit of courage.”
In her report on recommendations tabled, additional member Lisa Säftel said there was an emphasis on consequence management within the ANC and there was an agreement to hold the ANC accountable through monitoring and evaluation.
THE MERCURY
