“The National Democratic Revolution (NDR) has just suffered a significant setback,” ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said.
Mbalula characterised the current political juncture as a “significant setback”, as the organisation was not totally taken out of power.
He said the ANC was allowed by the electorate to still participate in a noteworthy manner regardless of its reduced majority.
Mbalula was responding to a question of whether the ANC was still championing the party’s position of its NDR.
“We view the fact that we are reduced in majority in a very serious light, because to us that reduction is significant, also it means we are on the verge of losing power…
“So the NDR has been seriously butted, and it has suffered a setback. It will be a measure of how we are going to interpret and act from where we are at,” he said.
Mbalula said the fact that the ANC was in the Government of National Unity (GNU) didn’t mean that it would move away from its position on issues of reform.
He said people should not distort the ANC’s ideology by equating it to a black political party.
“We are not Azapo, we are not the PAC. We are Pan-Africanists; we are not the Freedom Front Plus to be extreme. We are a multi-ideological party. In our ranks, we’ve got capitalists. We live in a capitalist society that we seek to transform.
“The measures we put in place to transform the economy and bring about equitability in society is an idea the ANC is pursuing. You can characterise that as social democracy,” Mbalula explained.
During an interview with the Sunday World, he said the fact that the party ventured into GNU was solely to secure power.
“We are a party now in government with 40%. Our preoccupation as the ANC should be on how we recover from this setback and not on succession debates.
“Where we are now, it is important to work with each other as a collective and support each other to ensure we consolidate the unity of purpose for the ANC, and the people of South Africa in particular.
“On the decision of forming GNU with other parties without consulting ANC structures,” Mbalula said the party’s structures had given the ANC’s national executive committee (NEC) a mandate to lead, adding that the ANC would not consult structures but rather engage them.
“We don’t consult, we engage out structures about the tactical moves we have actually taken. Once they have got a full brief of the NEC’s tactical moves, that’s when they will appreciate the decision,” he said.
The Star