S.Africa's ruling party outlines 14-point plan to address declining support

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Sunday put forward a 14-point plan to address decling support for the 104-year organization.

"This requires serious, objective and robust introspection within the movement itself, starting with the leadership at all levels," ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said after the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) met in Pretoria on August 11-14 to conduct "a vigorous, honest, open and thorough" assessment of the local government election outcomes.

In the elections held on August 3, the ANC lost a number of key municipalities and failed to retain its majority in the metropolitan municipalities of Tshwane, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay, Ekurhuleni and other municipalities.

Nationwide support for the ANC also dropped considerably.

The NEC believes that arresting the electoral decline would require the ANC to immediately and courageously embark on bold strategies to re-energize its structures and supporters, Mantashe said.

This will require the ANC to deal with perceptions of the organization being arrogant, self serving, soft on corruption and increasingly distant from its social base, he said.

As a result, the NEC resolved to take measures to address the challenges experienced during the campaign, some of which are responsible for the ANC's poor performance, said Mantashe.

He announced a 14-point plan for the ANC to implement with immediate effect.

Among these measures, the NEC will visit all provinces to meet with ANC and Alliance structures; different sectors and communities to deal with the concerns being raised by the people, Mantashe said.

He said the NEC will investigate and act on all instances where there was violation and even manipulation of the Candidate Selection Process, including where the choice of communities was undermined.

"We will take action against all who were involved regardless of positions they hold in the organization," he said.

The NEC resolved to task the national officials and the National Working Committee to take urgent measures to rid the movement of factionalism across the board, including in the NEC, Mantashe said.

The organization will immediately embark on training of its councillors to ensure that they lead their municipalities in the interests of the people, provide services to the people and maintain high levels of revolutionary discipline and integrity, he said.

The NEC resolved to mandate the government to take urgent steps to bring stability and policy certainty in state owned companies such as South African Airways (SAA), South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and electricity utility ESKOM, according to Mantashe.

"While noting the efforts to rid our society, government and the private sector of corruption and its associated consequences, the NEC calls for an approach that will effectively deal with this cancer, without fear or favour," he said.

Responding to growing calls for free education, the NEC resolved that the principle of no-fee increase in universities should remain in place to give chance to a consultative engagement with all stakeholders in order to arrive at an economically viable and affordable cost of higher education, Mantashe said.

"We reaffirm our deep commitment as the ANC to leave no stone unturned to make sure that as we advance towards next national and provincial elections and beyond, we will continue to work together with our people to address all the socio-economic challenges that still bedevil our land," he said. Endit