Mbeki sees African renaissance

By M. S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, JAN. 8. The President of the African National Congress, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, has called on the party's rank and file to ensure that the new structures of the local government ``serve the people and do not allow for any corrupt practice''.

Other priorities spelt out by Mr. Mbeki during a rally in Kimberly on Sunday, marking the 89th anniversary of the founding of the ANC, are strengthening of the party and its structures at the grassroots level, and ensuring that these are in regular contact with the masses. He also called for the strengthening of the tripartite alliance, adding, however, a significant caveat that ``this must continue to be a principled alliance''.

The ANC traces its origins to the South African Native National Congress which was formed at a conference in Bloemfontein on Jan. 8, 1912. The organisation renamed itself as the African National Congress in 1923.

As always, Mr. Mbeki's address was informed by his deep and passionate commitment to ``African renaissance''. At about a dozen points in his address he referred to this idea, or his related idea of the 21st century marking the commencement of the ``African Century''.

``Africa's time has come'', Mr. Mbeki said and called for the rebuilding of Africa's economies which had been over the centuries ravaged by slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism.

The priorities set in Mr Mbeki's address, actually the text of a statement issued in the name of the ANC's National Executive Committee, the party's highest policy-making body every year on the occasion of the anniversary of its founding, quite simply locate some of the persistent organisational weaknesses which were dealt with more extensively during the ANC's National General Council meeting in Port Elizabeth in July last year.

Mr. Mbeki's address was especially critical of ``opportunists and careerists within our ranks'' and sternly warned against ``corruption and a culture of personal enrichment'' within the ANC.

These remarks have to be seen in the immediate context of the recently concluded local government elections in which the Democratic Alliance, forged by the Democratic Party and the New National Party, characterised by the ANC and perceived by the majority of the people, as the party of white privilege, made significant gains. The ANC won control over 72 per cent of the municipalities, including the three metropolitan councils in Gauteng, but failed to wrest control of Cape Town or the majority of the municipalities in the Western Cape from the DA.

The ANC has reason to be concerned, even though Mr. Mbeki tried to sound positive about the electoral outcome. He noted in particular two matters for worry: the low turnout of the young voters; and two, ``our failure, once again, to draw larger numbers of people from the national minorities towards our movement''.

This is a persistent weakness whose consequence, the ANC's failure to make significant gains, let alone win, in Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, has been a constant in the outcome of every electoral exercise nationally and at the local level since the advent of democracy.

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Section  : International
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