The ANC has been captured by “a dominant faction which in fact is not ANC” and needs to be liberated.

This is what Former President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday when he addressed the National Consultative Conference of the Stalwarts and Veterans of the ANC at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The audience applauded his comment.

“What we are dealing with is a rot that has infested the organisation (ANC) as a whole.”

Mbeki said politicians who abuse state power for self-enrichment have affected the party at local‚ provincial and national level.

“Money that should have gone into some municipalities has been stolen.”

He said the ANC needs to take a comprehensive view to “liberate the ANC from the clutches of a dominant group”.

“Targeting one person or two or three is not going to solve our [ANC] problems”.

Mbeki believes there should be a discussion about the tripartite alliance of the ANC‚ Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP)‚ because it is not official policy and was born out of the common struggle against oppression.

“There was no committee that said ‘Let there be an alliance’.”