ANC National chairperson and Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe. Picture: Gallo Images/Deaan Vivier As questions swirl over who ANC and SACP dual members will vote for in next year’s elections, the ANC chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, has revealed who he will back. Mantashe, like other senior ANC members, holds dual membership of both parties.
The SACP has publicly criticised Mantashe’s commitment to the ANC. “I will vote for the ANC; I am the national chairperson of the ANC,” he said. He spoke to the media on Tuesday at the party’s National General Council (NGC).
He spoke as members sat behind closed doors, far from the media, debating the future of the ANC and shaping the policies that will guide it. In these meetings, SACP members will be privy to the ANC’s election strategy. The elephant in the room is the SACP’s decision to go it alone at next year’s polls.
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Mantashe said the National Executive Committee (NEC) has not issued a directive to its members on how to handle this matter, but all members with dual membership will decide how they vote next year. Mantashe also commented on reports that top party leaders are already positioning themselves to take over the party when the current term of the top seven and its NEC comes to an end. “People are putting their names in the hat, and they want to be elected.
That is premature at this point. The time for that will come, and I can tell you that I am old, I am not going to be available, I am a retiree,” he said. Mantashe said the party is worried about the declining support, but has programmes in place to restore the image of the ANC.
“What we should be doing is trying to correct the attitude of society towards us. If we are not succeeding, we are not going to get any change in the support.”
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