ANC STATEMENT ON M&G ARTICLE MANTASHE QUESTIONS MINORITIES ON ANC LIST The African National Congress has noted with grave concern the unfounded and malicious online article by the Mail & Guardian yesterday headlined Mantashe questions minorities on ANC list. The story seeks to insinuate that the Secretary-General of the ANC has no confidence in the ANC Candidate Lists nor in certain comrades who have been nominated through this countrys only internally democratic and robust process of all political parties contesting the 2014 General Elections. Had the Mail & Guardian sought to correctly report on the Secretary-Generals comments during the Pre-Election Debate held at Regenesys Business School on the 11th March 2014, they would have reported that the Secretary-General of the African National Congress spoke about the good story that is the inroads that the African National Congress has been making steadily within the so-called minority areas. They would have reported that the Secretary-Generals starting point was to differ with the notion of the term minority communities being attached to Coloured and Indian people in our country, making the fundamental point that these communities are and have always been and remain an inextricable part, together with Africans, of the oppressed black majority in South Africa. The Secretary-General further made the point that all comrades who form part of the ANC Candidate List do so on the basis of the confidence that members of the ANC have shown in them. This is as a result of the activism and visibiity in their communities and constitutencies dealing with the challenges facing our people on a daily basis. Thus no one should ever construe the emergence of Coloured and Indian communities on the ANC list as the meeting of quotas; the ANCs entrenched principles of democracy themselves would be resistant to such an approach. Every comrade who is to form part of our sevant corp of public representatives to move South Africa forward must have proven themselves as organisers and leaders in their areas of endeavour. No one is rewarded with being on the list if they dont do work in their communities but seek favour because they are meant to form part of a minority community The statement that Comrade Gwede Mantashe said Some of the ANCs National Assembly nominees did not deserve to be on the list is not true and based on amateur journalism by the Mail & Guardian that we have consistenly complained of but the paper ontinues to offer the nation. The ANCs list process is a democratic one, and involves members and branches of the ANC electing their preferred candidates. The candidates on our list have been carefully vetted, and every nominee had a right to accept or decline the nomination. The candidates on the ANCs list be it to Parliament or the Provincial Legislatures are the peoples candidates. The African National Congress awaits a retraction of the story by the Mail and Guardian and reserves its right to further challenge this infactual, inaccurate and malicious reporting. We are convinced that this story is not only mischievious but intentionally politically motivated and designed to isolate the African National Congress from sections of our society at this time. The response from the Secretary-General to this matter follows in a separate email.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 11:30:47 +0000
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