Lesufi slates ANC NEC decision making turnaround times, wants agile ANC

The African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng has mooted some proposed policy changes for the National Executive Committee (NEC) mother body when its provincial conference resumes next month.

Its newly-elected Provincial Chairperson, Panyaza Lesufi, says they are impatient with the manner in which the ANC NEC is taking decisions.

He says the governing party’s highest decision-making body in its current form takes a long time to make decisions on important issues.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the SABC News, Lesufi cited the delay in the release of the outcome of the Ekurhuleni Regional Conference as one example which warrants a reconfigured NEC.

“This thing that everything must wait until the NEC meets and when it is confronted by its own challenges no decision is taken is taking us backward. We want an agile ANC that can take decisions. Now, those are the contributions that we want to make because we are impatient with the manner that the ANC is taking decisions, sometimes it’s too long.”

Repositioning the ANC 

Lesufi says for now his obsession is to build an agile ANC that will work to improve the living conditions of South Africans.

He says he will not be a triumphalist and would rather focus on repositioning the ANC.

“The obsession about individuals must come to an end. This thing is not about me; it’s about all of us in the ANC family. If people think because one has won, I am victorious, I am going to target (Lebohang) Maile or target people that were supporting him, I don’t have that time. I have the time together with the collective to have this province functional again and solve problems of communities than watching other people whether they are on my side or they are about to stab me. I don’t have that time. The immediate task is to reposition the ANC to be agile, to be at the centre of service delivery, but most importantly, to have its house in order. If you can’t have an ANC that is respectable and the ANC that respects its people and its constituency, then you must forget.”

In the report below, Lesufi says the ANC must rid itself of deadwood: