The African National Congress (ANC) used to be "a lot more orderly," Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday evening.

He was addressing leading businesspeople from the South African Greek, Italian and Portuguese communities in Sandton.

"These have been difficult years," Manuel said.

"In the ANC, we always had a leadership that dealt with issues," he added.

Manuel said one of the difficulties experienced by the party was that some of the respected cadres had passed on, while others were no longer active in the ANC.

"But I am sure this will pass - the reason I am still an ANC member is because I know it will pass. There is too much history and tradition to walk away from," he said.

He added that the project to build a better life for all was not something that could be abandoned.

Asked about his tenure as Finance Minister, Manuel said he served at the pleasure of the President.

"But I can't do a job like Finance Minister forever.

"This is a discussion that the incoming President can best answer... but I wouldn't have gone on to the ANC list if I hadn't declared my preparedness to go on serving," Manuel said.

Manuel, who has been Finance Minister since 1996, came in fourth on the ANC's list of 100 Parliamentary candidates which improves his chances of keeping his post in the Cabinet.

Turning to the economy, Manuel said South Africa was "holding up remarkably well" in the global crisis.

"We haven't been as ravaged as most countries," he said.

While South Africa was still a commodity exporting country, some commodities - such as platinum - were taking strain, he noted.

"When I say we're holding up remarkably well, I'm not suggesting there won't be job losses or that the world economy has touched the bottom," he added.

"However, there is no need to panic," Manuel said.

Addressing black economic empowerment (BEE), the Minister said that this was one of government's policies that needed to be "rethought".

While BEE was what Manuel termed "a constitutional imperative', he said that it could not be "leveraged by debt with the hope that share prices move upwards."

Some hard thinking had to be done on where BEE worked and where it did not, the Minister said.