Durban - The former secretary of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, Mdumiseni Ntuli believes the party will rid itself of slates politics in the coming conference, saying slates have been devastating to the party’s electability.
He said the slates have resulted in leaders not suitable for positions being elected.
Ntuli has been nominated by some branches of the ANC for the position of secretary-general at the party’s conference in December.
Speaking on Newzroom Africa news channel, Ntuli said he was hopeful that in the December conference delegates will elect people on suitability, not on slates.
“It excites me, and genuine members of the ANC would be excited in that we stand a possibility to defeat the slate politics.
“I have made an observation over the past few days that there are comrades even in social media who are characterising me as an independent candidate.
“To a larger extent I forgive those comrades. Some of them are relatively new to the ANC, they joined the ANC 10 to 15 years ago and by that time the politics of slates was very dominant in the ANC.
“But any period before the national conference of the ANC in 2007, at least 15 years ago, you were not having a slate in the ANC. The leadership was chosen on potential and the responsibility they are being considered for.
“There was not this thing that there would be a meeting of provinces that must convene and pronounce on their preferred line-up, the leadership was allowing branches to go through the nomination process at the end of that exercise a consolidation would be done by the province which would be indicative of the dominant view.
“Slates politics is very dangerous to the ANC in that you become beholden to the people that elected you, they remind you that maybe you were not going to make it to this position, it is because you were associated with them that made it possible for you to be known by branches and delegates, and as a consequence you got elected,” he said.
He said slate politics had been devastating for the party’s fortunes in polls, as evidenced by the decline in votes since 2009.
“Part of the reason (for our decline) is division, disunity, slate politics which has resulted in many instances where a leadership that is not capable to lead are chosen on the basis of association to certain other comrades who are being elected.
“I think the ANC is coming to an end and all of us who are genuine members of the ANC are committed to defeating that because it does not work for the organisation,” Ntuli said.