The ANC Veterans League has called for the mother body to review the participation of coalitions in municipalities. The party works with minority parties including the EFF in the Metropolitans in Gauteng. In Johannesburg, the Al Jama-ah is in charge of the mayoral position held by Kabelo Gwamanda due to this arrangement. ANC’s Dada Morero holds a very critical portfolio of Finance while in Ekurhuleni EFF’s Nkululeko Dunga also occupies the same position as a Member of the Mayoral Committee of Finance. All this was enabled due to ANC-EFF-backed coalitions which began taking shape late last year but came into power in January. The ANC Veterans’ League conference, which concluded on Sunday with five leaders at the helm, wants all of this to be reviewed.

COALITIONS REVIEW 

In a statement yesterday, the newly elected leadership said that the conference called for the ANC to immediately review participation in coalition arrangements that are costly for the ANC and are not consistent with the framework adopted by the National Executive Committee (NEC). They also called for the ANC to plan for an outright majority in the next elections. "We cannot invest our energy in coalition politics. Coalitions don’t work for the people," the statement said. The elders of the ruling party also discussed the resolutions on building the structure of the party. "The resolutions passed by the conference focused on building the Veteran’s League, the renewal of the ANC, and addressing issues of poor service delivery and the current crisis of load shedding. Several concrete and implementable proposals were made in respect of renewing the ANC including tightening membership criteria and strengthening the disciplinary structures and Integrity Commission," said the statement.

CORRUPTION FREE ANC?

They also want ANC to be free from corruption, factionalism and political violence. "The veterans committed themselves to be a ‘resource for the organisation’, especially in terms of cadre development and political education. The new NEC of the Veterans League will soon gather to put in place their internal structures and develop a programme of action for the next five years to implement the resolutions of the conference. Snuki Zikalala was re-elected President, Mavuso Msimang his deputy, Iva MacKay-Langa was elected secretary-general, Connie September as deputy secretary General and Fazel Randera was elected treasurer-general. The veterans league held their three-day conference over the weekend in Boksburg.