'ANC must set example'
2007-12-16 10:10
Johannesburg - As the ANC national conference in Polokwane began on Sunday, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said the ruling party had a lot of work to do to set an example of reconciliation in its own ranks.
In a statement Zille said that while Sunday marked the opening week of Reconciliation Day and the closing week of International Human Rights Day, it was also the day the ANC would elect a new party leader.
"It is thus an appropriate moment to reflect on whether our society is drawing together around human rights as a living concept, and overcoming our history of race-based division," she said.
Zille said in the battle between ANC president Thabo Mbeki and deputy president Jacob Zuma, Mbeki had been "poisonous and divisive" and had split the organisation into competing camps.
"As that conference in Polokwane begins in an atmosphere of factionalism and mud-slinging, it is obvious that the governing party has work to do in order to set an example of reconciliation in its own ranks," she said.
She said the situation was "so bad" that it had spurred Frank Chikane, the director-general in the president's office to condemn the strange new crop of cadres who disgraced the party of Albert Luthuli, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela.
He said the cadres were only interested in positions, power, patronage and access to resources and tenders.
"Human rights and the aspirations of our people have taken a back seat, while the ANC argues amongst itself with a bitterness seldom so publicly displayed between members of the same organisation.
"After the fury and the vitriol, it is hard to imagine how the ANC will again be able to achieve unity and common purpose amongst these opposing factions," she said.
Zille said national reconciliation in the country was too often "trumped" by the ANC's national democratic revolution which was in fact not democratic.
"Instead of creating opportunities for all South Africans, 'transformation' has become a figleaf for promoting the interests of a small group with the right political connections.
"It has become just another form of exclusion that in many ways is holding back reconciliation," said Zille.
She said the opposition party hoped the ANC would put their differences aside and make their choices for the leadership based on the good of the country and not the party.
"In the spirit of the Day of Reconciliation, it is vital that we reach out to each other and give life to the vision and ideals of our Constitution," Zille said.
- SAPA