Nomvula Mokonyane sticks to her guns on weak ANC leadership

ANC national executive committee member Nomvula Mokonyane has stuck to her guns, maintaining that the current leadership structure was the weakest in the party's history.

Mokonyane was speaking in Nasrec, Johannesburg, on Friday ahead of the ANC's first physical NEC meeting in more than two years.

On Friday ANC leaders made their way to the Nasrec, the venue of the party's national elective conference to be held next month.

Earlier this week, Mokonyane gave a frank assessment of the NEC while speaking to SowetanLIVE's sister publication, Sunday Times.

Ahead of the three-day NEC meeting, Mokonyane, who is vying for deputy secretary-general at the 55th national conference, said she was ready to face backlash due to her assessment of the NEC.

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“I’m ready [for backlash].

“As I’ve said, we’ve got members of the ANC who’ve survived one of the most difficult moments such as the pandemic, the shutdown and the collapse of all branches of the ANC. But it was individual members who’ve responded and said what’s missing is this NEC.

“Many of us run away when society is in need of leadership but are very articulate in justifying peripheral issues that don’t resolve the issue of load-shedding, the plight of young people and unemployment,” she said.

“Going forward, one of the things we need to look at in considering this NEC is whether a person belongs to any other thing other than this NEC. We’ve got members who are nothing else but just members of the NEC yet we’ve got other members of the ANC who are part of faith-based organisations, the mothers' union, trade unions, civic organisations, youth formations and it is them who are doing a lot of community work,” Mokonyane said.

She said the three-day meeting was already heated due to the divergent views on what the ANC should look like going forward.

The NEC is expected to receive a report from the electoral committee led by former president Kgalema Motlanthe. Nominations for the top six positions closed on Monday after the deadline had been moved twice to allow branches enough time to convene branch general meetings.

Earlier this week, ANC treasurer-general and acting general secretary Paul Mashatile said the party had surpassed its threshold for conference to go ahead as planned.

Other items up for discussions could include the integrity committee's report on the Phala Phala scandal.

However, Mokonyane said that should not be the NEC's only preoccupation.

“We can’t select the issue of Phala Phala, we can’t select the issue of step aside outside of the broader policy related matters.

“What every meeting of the ANC should look at is the issue of the mandates we’ve been given. The mandate is about land, the mandate is about building a non-racial society, building an equal society, promoting the emancipating of society and building an activist ANC and our mandate is coming to an end,” she said.

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