The African National Congress (ANC) Stalwarts Consultative conference is taking place at a time when the ruling party is in a crisis, said renowned poet, novelist, former MK commander and ANC stalwart Wally Serote, who gave the opening address at the conference on Friday at Constitution Hill.

The stalwarts arranged for the “much needed” consultative conference, to be held between November 17 and 19, before the ANC’s fifty-fourth elective conference, expected to take place in mid-December, in an effort to identify the root cause of why the ruling party has become what it has and to reach a consensus on what to do to rescue the country.

The conference on Friday was attended by about 300 civil society activists who have taken a leading role in opposing State capture in South Africa in recent months, along with millions of South Africans grappling with the realities of corruption and State looting.

Among those attending the conference were former President Thabo Mbeki, former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and his former deputy Mcebisi Jonas, South African Communist Party First Secretary General Solly Mapaila, former tourism minister Derek Hanekom, as well as Banking Association of South Africa MD Cas Coovadia and presidential hopeful and Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

Serote said that the first and most important aspect of the consultative conference must be to protect the Constitution and added that the country was being devastated by corruption and greedy individuals.

He went on to state that “the centre is not holding, both in the ANC and in government.”

“The ANC cannot and must never be separated from the aspirations of our people. It is possible to create a peaceful and secure environment for all people living in [South Africa]. Together we must restore and repair the organisation which is non-sexist, non-racial, and democratic,” he said.

Delivering the key note address at the conference, Nelson Mandela Foundation board chairperson Professor Njabulo Ndebele said that elements of government have abdicated law enforcement duty and resorted to “thievery” themselves.

South Africans needed to save the country from the parallel State, he said.

Further, he pointed out that the scourge of corruption had gone far beyond being a matter of law and order, maintenance of which was becoming increasingly difficult, he said, because government was at the root cause of the corruption.

“As South Africans we need to rescue our country from those who are defrauding the State. The ultimate threat to South Africa is a loss of freedom,” said Ndebele. 

He added that ANC veterans needed to generate a strong purpose if they wanted to build a new organisation that was stronger and retained the values of the old ANC.

Ndebele said it had become a matter of importance for all South Africans to understand that the government must be saved from degenerating further into the criminal syndicate that it had so obviously turned into over the last ten years.

He said the fate of 50-million South Africans was at stake.

STATE CAPTURE
Addressing the issue of State capture Ndebele said President Jacob Zuma was held at ransom by those who had paid him money to run the country for their own purposes.

He asked what kind of debased, undignified mentality condones a head of State sitting in a room and allowing people - who have no authority to do so - to take decisions on behalf of the State in another room?

He asserted that Zuma had left the country vulnerable and exposed through State capture.

The former Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Cape Town said that he believed in the value of the discussions that will emerge from the conference.         

Meanwhile, ANC stalwart and presidential hopeful Lindiwe Sisulu said it was unfortunate that many ANC leaders were unable to attend the conference.

“These are my people. This is the ANC I grew up with, this is the ANC we fought for. These are the people I am hoping we could reach out to, to say just come back home. We are so much poorer without them and their input. This conference means everything to me. As a presidential candidate I will include its resolutions in my campaign,” she promised.

When asked about how she felt about the issue of State capture in her organisation, Sisulu said those who were implicated should face the necessary test of a disciplinary process while those who were wrongfully implicated should have an opportunity to clear their names.

INVESTOR CONFIDENCE

Also attending the conference was Chamber of Mines CEO Roger Baxter who said to Polity (voice clip attached) that South Africa was facing a number of issues around ethical leadership, deteriorating governance, policy uncertainty, and investor and business confidence, which was at its lowest in 30 years.

He added that these issues were affecting investment in mining, as well as policy certainty.

Baxter said South Africa desperately needed investment, as it was what drove growth, and without growth the country could not solve its poverty and unemployment issues.

“We did grow 5% a year between 2001 and 2008. There were a million jobs created in the economy, so we can do it. We have the capability, what we need is the ethical leadership, good governance and partnership between government, business, labour and communities to drive the agenda for positive transformative change and that must be done in a way which creates the climate for investment, growth, employment creation and skills development,” Baxter said.

He pointed out that the chamber has publicly called for a commission of inquiry into State capture, and warned that it needed to happen sooner than later because corruption, State capture, unethical leadership and poor governance were the major factors affecting confidence in the country.