These are the six things worrying the ANC right now
The ANC has admitted that it has concerns about its waning support, following the general elections in May last year.
This was revealed this past week in an internal discussion document prepared for the ruling party’s upcoming National General Council (NGC).
The ruling party will have an eye on the 2016 municipal elections, when it convenes for the NGC at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Gauteng in October.
The discussion document underlines several major concerns for the party including:
Sliding majority
“The ANC’s leadership status and role are under threat; and other political forces
seek to exploit its weaknesses to dislodge it,” the document said.
It noted that the electoral trends reflect an ANC that, at above 60%, enjoys the support of the overwhelming majority of voters.
However, from the last two national elections, the ANC has shed support, coming down from 69.7% in 2004, to 65.9% in 2009 and 62.2% in 2014, it said.
In the same period, the DA has been gaining support, while breakaways from the ANC (COPE and now EFF) have received significant support.
Factionalism
For the ANC to “continue to serve and lead the people”, it should have organisational capacity and a corps of cadres who are able to give leadership to society at large.
“Factionalism and ‘money politics’ were identified as some of the critical weaknesses sapping the very revolutionary core of the organisation,” the paper said.
Corruption
The document said that when there is repetitive poor management of allegations of corruption and patronage within high leadership echelons, the legitimacy of the state and the polity as such are undermined.
“Indeed, over the past few years a general impression of systemic corruption has been created, ranging from unsavoury developments in State-owned Enterprises, strange machinations within security and tax authorities, to unconvincing responses to admonitions for accountability by relevant Constitutional bodies.”
The document said that what seems to be new, with major implications for state legitimacy, is how deeply-entrenched corrupt practices – driven by a few state employees, public representatives and the private sector – and arrogance by some in leadership positions have become, directly affecting social delivery.
“This finds expression especially, but not exclusively, at local government level.”
Wealth distribution
“Widening disparities in income, wealth, and opportunities have risen to the top of our concerns,” the paper said.
“We have focused on confronting inequality of opportunity, focusing on access to education and health and inequality in human capital, however much still needs to be done.”
Inequality of income is also a function of the distribution of economic assets and their rates of return.
“The distribution of wealth and income is largely still characterised by the racial and gender demographics of the colonial past.”
Infrastructure projects
Given the paucity of resources available in the fiscus – in this current period of low economic growth and a huge budget deficit – it will be necessary to ensure proper prioritisation and sequencing of state interventions, the ANC document said.
“It is also necessary to find creative ways of drawing in the private sector in realising some of the objectives such as urgent infrastructure projects.”
Monopolies vs SMEs
The huge concentration and centralisation of capital, with monopolies dominating most sectors of the economy, and some of them engaging in uncompetitive practices, is a major challenge, the ANC said.
Small, medium and micro-enterprises do not enjoy the same broad proportion of GDP as in other developing countries, the discussion document said.
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