The African National Congress (ANC) is confronting the "dangerous intersection" of people holding public office and simultaneously having business interests, the party's secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Tuesday.

"We must refuse to accept that getting elected to a position of influence is a licence for personal wealth accumulation," he said to applause at the Tshwane University of Technology.

If the party did not succeed in defeating this tendency it would continue to see bitter fighting for positions from which patronage could be dispensed and wealth accumulated.

He explained that the ANC was not against individuals going into business, but was against people in government channelling tenders into their own businesses.

Bringing up the matter was currently causing much unhappiness as people felt they were being attacked, but the party would persist.

"As we begin to raise it consistently we will succeed in ensuring that people make clear choices."

Mantashe said the ANC was making a "clear distinction" between protests related to service delivery and those caused by infighting. The latter he said involved people jostling to become councillors or "positioning" themselves for the 2011 local government elections.

The party had visited and spoken to councillors in its regions.

"[I]f there is protest, we ask where was the ANC councillor. The councillor could have picked up the problem and addressed it."

All councillors would be evaluated, to identify those doing agood job and those that were liabilities.

The party would look at whether they attended and participated in council work, whether they did "political work" by holding ward and public meetings and also on whether they made an effort to develop themselves.

This system would help the party retain experience and ensure continuity in the 2011 elections, and also reverse the reality that 67% of current councillors were in the job for the first time.

Mantashe received a hero's welcome at the Pretoria West Campus when he stepped onto the auditorium. The audience, mostly ANC Youth League members, burst into praise songs.