Debates on ANC: Party must be involved - Zuma
2012-06-26 22:34
Johannesburg - The ANC must get involved in debates criticising the party, President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.
"The ANC has been discussed left, right and centre, in the morning, afternoon, evening and all other times.... With time, people are going to get used to inaccurate facts about the ANC," Zuma told reporters in Midrand.
"Our view is that some people who discuss the ANC do not know that ANC. They do have views about the ANC...[and] at times their interpretations are not accurate."
He said the minds and hearts of South Africans were being won on "wrong " ideas about the ANC.
"The ANC must be in the [national] space and debate itself," he said.
"If there is a criticism that the ANC is not doing something, there must be a reason why. If you don't explain to people, then people will think that the ANC just don't want to do this thing."
Zuma was talking to the media on the sidelines of the party's four-day policy conference.
He said the party had previously had a relaxed stance on internal discipline, but that was beginning to change.
"What we have been saying is that... We were not very quick to take action. This is partly because of the culture of the ANC... [it] is a very patient organisation.
"There is now a trend where people repeatedly make mistakes... But now people must no longer cross the line. People were beginning to do things which in a sense undermined the standing of the ANC and continue to do so."
Turning to unemployment, he said delegates at the conference must discuss a way to help raise youth employment levels.
"I spoke about the need for some subsidy that was very specific in terms of how we should create a bridge [for].., youth that are coming out of tertiary institutions, who cannot be employed by companies," he said.
"That issue was looked at by Cosatu [Congress of SA Trade Unions] differently. We thought it was important to engage the alliance on this issue, until we come to some kind of understanding."
- SAPA
