Motlanthe: I won't lead by arrangement

2012-12-03 07:48

Kgalema Motlanthe (Picture: GCIS)

Johannesburg - Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe was not interested in leading an organisation where he was elected "by arrangement", he said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.

"I don't want to lead an organisation where I have no sense of what the members think of me - and by arrangment. I would never do that," he told Business Day.

"Once it's interfered with, if I offered them sweeteners or jobs, I would never actually know whether they have confidence in me or not."

Delegates in most provinces have nominated President Jacob Zuma to be elected for a second term at the governing party's national elective conference in Mangaung in December.

Factional discord

However, nomination conferences were plagued by factional discord, with three provinces failing to nominate their preferred candidates for the party's leadership by Friday's deadline.

"The fact that you hear noises from time to time saying, 'you mustn't stand, you mustn't do this' and so on - there is no appetite for elections.

"Elections in an organisation are an instrument for strengthening an organisation, not weakening it - but that's only when it works and people accept it," said Motlanthe.

"At [the SA Communist Party] conference now the central committee consists of 62 members and all nine provinces nominated the same 62, which means there was no need for elections.

"That influence played itself out at the Cosatu [Congress of SA Trade Unions] conference.

"It is that same influence that is going to play itself out in the ANC at Mangaung," said Motlanthe.

- SAPA