Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has urged members of the party to be loyal and support it in the next polls.
He said the ANC will not lose power through increased support of the opposition, but because of infighting within the ruling party.
He said infighting within the ANC has had an impact and this may cost it at the polls next year.
Mbalula called on members of the party to build the ANC.
The task that was also facing the organisation was to address the socio-economic challenges facing the people.
The people had far bigger problems including water and energy problems.
Mbalula, who was addressing the Peter Mokaba memorial lecture in Polokwane on Sunday, said the party must resolve the energy crisis.
However, the important task as well was to ensure that the ANC remained strong.
The ANC will never lose power from opposition parties, but it is the infighting that will lead to loss of power, said Mbalula.
“Our organisation comrades will never lose power. The ANC will lose power because of ANC members fighting other ANC members. That is what will happen to the ANC. The ANC will lose because of opposition from the ANC.
“We must build our organisation. We must be loyal to our organisation. We must be loyal to our people. We must not be obsessed about our issues. Our people have got bigger challenges. Our people have got bigger demands, which we must resolve. That is what we must do as the ANC. We must resolve issues of electricity. We must resolve not only issues of electricity, we must resolve issues of water,” said Mbalula.
Mbalula also reiterated that the ANC government was non-aligned on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
This was a clear position that has been taken by the government, but some of the parties are distorting it.
What the ANC wanted to see was an end to the war in Ukraine.
This was the same message communicated by President Cyril Ramaphosa when he was on a peace mission with six other heads of state and government from Africa to Ukraine and Russia two weeks ago.
The African leaders met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and Russian president Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg where the peace plan was put on the table.
Mbalula said it was clear from the peace mission where South Africa stands.
Politics