ANCYL: 1 president is better

2007-12-02 20:16

Johannesburg - Having two presidents, one of the country and the other of the ANC, could cause tensions and instigate reactions unless properly managed, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) said on Sunday.

The ANCYL backs ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma for election to the top job during the party's national conference in Limpopo in two weeks.

However, other ANC bodies are throwing their weight behind President Thabo Mbeki, who presently leads both the country and the party.

Should Zuma be chosen, his presidency of the party will overlap with the term of President Thabo Mbeki ahead of the next election in 2009.

"It is important to attend to this because it is a brand new experience for the movement," said ANCYL President Fikile Mbalula. "We have never faced it before."

He said it was "relatively easy" to manage the transition from the administration of former president Nelson Mandela to that of Mbeki because Mandela voluntarily stepped down.

"The two presidents will have to know that both are individually and collectively subject to the collective interests of the ANC as a movement.

"It is them who serve the ANC which, in turn, serves the people of South Africa. It is not the people of South Africa who serve the ANC which, in turn serves the presidents."

Mbalula said the unity of the organisation was paramount and "must be paramount in their agenda".

"A standoff between them will be fundamentally against the interests of the ANC.

Protocol required

"But, we must not also naively expect that the two will automatically work together. We must not leave this question to chance."

The ANCYL had called for a protocol for former ANC Presidents.

"This is important to guide how former presidents behave and relate with the organisation as a whole... where they may be ex-presidents of the ANC while they are still the president of the country," said Mbalula.

"There must be thought given to how the president of the country who is an ex-president of the ANC relates to the president of the ANC who is not yet the president of the country."

This was even more important when the country's president lost an election as party president ahead of a general election.

"This reality may confront the ANC in the near future, and will stay with us for more than a year.

"How things unfold during this period of more than a year will have a major bearing on how the next five or more years will be like, and what new experiences and lessons will be learned and what new legacy will develop," he said.

- SAPA