- Former president Thabo Mbeki has warned the ANC's failures may lead to a similar violent uprising as those witnessed during the Arab Spring of 2011.
- He says high levels of unemployment, poverty, and inequality are a recipe for disaster, which the governing party needs to address speedily.
- Mbeki also cautioned that to honour Jessie Duarte appropriately, the ANC needs to stop bickering and implement its renewal process.
Former president Thabo Mbeki has launched a scathing attack on President Cyril Ramaphosa, saying the ruling party has no plan to address South Africa's most pressing issues.
"Comrade President Cyril Ramaphosa, when he delivered the State of the Nation Address in February, said in 100 days there must be an agreed upon social compact to address these matters. Nothing has happened. To honour the legacy of comrade Jessie, we have got to do something about that," he said.
Mbeki said this during his keynote address at the national memorial service for the late ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, who died on Sunday after a long struggle with cancer.
The service was held at the Johannesburg City Hall on Thursday.
Mbeki has warned that, should the current state of unemployment, poverty, and inequality continue to persist, South Africa may experience a violent uprising similar to that of the 2011 Arab Spring.
He said:
The Report of Expert Panel on July 2021 unrest revealed a melting pot of circumstances that encompass the country's triple challenge of high levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment, that were at the heart of the violent uprising and looting that threatened to mimic the Arab Spring.
Mbeki went on to echo sentiments expressed by the newly elected SACP general-secretary Solly Mapaila, who said the governing party's leadership was failing to discharge its responsibility to lead, leaving the country on autopilot.
Mbeki added: "… while we [ANC members] may differ with this statement [by Mapaila], I think that the fact that it was made by a general-secretary of an alliance partner means that there is something that is wrong."We can’t just dismiss that statement, and to honour the legacy of comrade Jessie Duarte, we need to address this."
He was unwavering that, for the ANC to truly honour Duarte, it had to renew the organisation and not just pay lip service to doing so.
Mbeki did not mince his words, saying: "To respect Duarte's legacy, we must embark on practical actions, not slogans."
He said the ANC had, at its national conference in December 2017, taken an important decision to renew itself for the sake of its own survival, but that deliberations were still being made on the definition of what renewal meant, and that no tangible action had been taken.
"It's a very, very simple and straightforward matter, but four-and-a-half years later, we still have this matter on our agenda for the upcoming policy conference.
"That is one of the things that we must address. It's a challenging task, a challenging job because even in the 49th conference in December 1994, comrades at the conference were saying we have begun to inherit people in the ANC who are not ANC.
"People who are coming into the organisation in order to use it as a stepladder to positions of state power in order to accumulate worth for themselves.
"We need to go beyond deciding what is the definition of renewal to acting of the renewal, that is to honour the legacy of Jessie Duarte," said Mbeki.
He reserved his worst criticism for the ANC's failure at local government level, saying this was more worrying because this was a government sphere that directly affected the masses.
"We must address local government. The reports of the Auditor-General always come out and point a finger at councils that are particularly led by the ANC. That level of government is in direct contact with the majority of the people, and it is failing them so much; what message are we saying to the masses?"