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ANC wants educated leaders

THE OLD GENERATION: ANC President Jacob Zuma with former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. PHOTO: Simon Mathebula
THE OLD GENERATION: ANC President Jacob Zuma with former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. PHOTO: Simon Mathebula

"We can no longer blame Apartheid"

THE ANC will in the next 10 years be led by a new generation of educated leaders who will help modernise it.

That's if the party's elective conference in Mangaung approves a new radical "go-back-to-school" campaign proposed in a document due to be released for discussion.

The document, 'Organisational Renewal: Building the ANC as a movement for transformation and a strategic centre', argues for the production of new leaders and members.

By sending the new generation of leaders to school, colleges and universities, the ANC could achieve a goal of "literate leadership in 10 years and a complete literate and well educated membership in 20 years".

The younger generation, says the document, cannot continue to blame apartheid for lack of education.

"As part of ensuring that the ANC is truly a force of modernisation right into the future, [it] should consciously adopt a perspective that ANC membership should be the most informed, most conscientious and most enlightened in every community," the document reads.

"Education and training will therefore be very important among the rank-and-file going forward."

Taken to its logical conclusion, the argument advanced in the document could mean that leaders like President Jacob Zuma could be the last of the older generation to make it to the top without formal education.

At the ANC's centenary bash in Bloemfontein in January, Zuma spoke about the need for the ANC to develop a new type of leaders.

The discussion document suggest that the level of education should determine the positions to which ANC members are deployed within the party and in government.

"Going forward, we should ensure that no cadre is deployed into a position without any proper training and preparation," it says.

"Massive political education and academic training of ANC members is therefore crucial for the survival of the ANC as a progressive force and its success as a capable governing party."

In addition to conventional tuition, the document proposes wide-ranging measures to educate its members and leaders about the history and strategies of the ruling party.

Drawing from the ANC's conference decisions of 1985, the document recommends the revival of "cadre policy" - measures to recruit and develop quality members.

The authors of the document do not hide their dismay at the lack of depth among the party's members.

Among other observations, the document states:

  • Most of our deployed cadres have been found wanting on issues of ethics and integrity, and proactive interventions have to be made to build a more conscientious cadre,
  • One of the consequences of lack of coherent cadre policy in the current period is that we have been deploying comrades into positions of serious responsibility and authority without adequate preparation...,
  • [The ANC] has no system to closely nurture new cadres, monitor their development performance and accountability,
  • There is no way our revolution will succeed if we allow the current attitude of 'everybody for himself/herself' and the 'dog-eat-dog mentality' among our members, especially those in leadership.

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