Africa-Press – South-Africa. In the latest move that signals his willingness to serve in the ANC’s top six, Ronald Lamola said the party’s top six structure should reflect the country’s demographics.
And he marked himself as a man on a mission to point out the ANC’s need to elect a younger generation of leaders.
“I know that we still need some of them, and they can impart some experience, but they cannot be a majority. That is the open discussion we must have with them. It must be open [and] cordial… but we must not be apologetic. I am saying this to the region because I know it is very important that the ANC reflects our country’s demographic,” Lamola told an audience of ANC members at the Walter Sisulu memorial lecture in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga over the weekend.
He publicly stated his willingness to serve in the top six.
But it’s unclear whether his push to be nominated becomes a reality when the party heads to its elective conference in December.
This comes as the push from older ANC leaders, including treasurer Paul Mashatile, to rise in the ranks of the top six gains momentum. Mashatile was showered with praises and chants for his endorsement to serve as ANC deputy president at the Limpopo conference. Other older ANC leaders, including Lindiwe Sisulu, Jeff Radebe, and Zweli Mkhize have shown a keen interest in leading the party.
Lamola used former ANC leader Walter Sisulu as an example of a young leader who was elected when he was 37 years old to serve as ANC secretary-general.
He said:
“We need a careful transition toward a new generation of leaders and thinking. A failure to transition will delay the necessary shift we have to make to realise our mission,” he added.
“The reality is that the ANC became highly effective when young people like Walter Sisulu, Lilian Ngoyi and Oliver Tambo took the responsibility of leading the organisation after it had become moribund,” Lamola said.
He added that those who were implicated in state capture were not prepared to go down without a fight.
The implementation of the recommendations of the State Capture Report was part of the ANC 2017 national conference resolution, he pointed out.
“Our organisation is infested with wedge-drivers. Day by day, we bear witness to their mechanism in action, and they spare no one. They even dare to maliciously attack even the president of the ANC. The commission of inquiry was a Nasrec resolution on state capture. When implementing the inquiry’s recommendations into state capture, we are implementing the Nasrec resolution,” he added.
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