Efforts to help the African National Congress regain its former glory will not succeed‚ the executive director of Corruption Watch‚ David Lewis‚ believes.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Leadership‚ Lewis said history showed that the former liberation movement enjoyed 65% majority support only in the first elections‚ which ushered in the democratic era.

“The mission to restore the ANC to former glory is a lost cause...If the mission is to restore the ANC to its 65% majority‚ the only way to do that is through more patronage.

“More patronage ... begets the suppression of key institutions in society in order to cover up the patronage. [These are] the law enforcement institutions‚ the Chapter 9 institutions‚ the Auditor-Generals‚ SA Revenue Service... are all victims in the effort to cover up what is necessary if a political party is to retain that super dominance‚” Lewis told delegates in Midrand.

The conference is made up of leaders from churches‚ business and academics who are discussing various aspects of ethics in society and government.

During interaction‚ there were calls for cabinet ministers to be subjected to screening and for panel interviews in order to build strong leadership in the state.

AngloGold Ashanti chairman Sipho Pityana said the apartheid government was corrupt and full of patronage. The ANC then deployed its people with the aim of transforming the state and changing its functioning. “We succeeded in changing the demographic profile of the state but we failed in infusing agents of reorientation of the state. Guess what the result is‚ the....new agents reflected the conduct of their predecessors‚” said Pityana.