‘It’s not possible to go and say, vote ANC for a criminal’ affirms Thabo Mbeki

With the approach of the 2024 general elections in South Africa, where political parties are engaged in a race to secure the support of the population, former president Thabo Mbeki has expressed uncertainty about his involvement in the campaign for the African National Congress (ANC) party.

During a dialogue event at Unisa, organized by the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, the esteemed leader mentioned that he has reservations about actively campaigning for the ANC in the upcoming 2024 general election. He emphasized that he would need to see significant rejuvenation within the party before committing to such an effort.

Thabo Mbeki brought attention to the resolutions made during the ANC National Conference in 2017. At that time, the conference had emphasized the necessity for the party to undergo a process of renewal, highlighting that the survival of the ANC was contingent on this revitalization.

However, he notes that, following the call at the 2017 conference for the party to renew itself, nothing has since taken place in the renewal process.
Further, he noted that again in the 2022 conference, the same call was made, and the leaders have remained adamant about persecuting it.
Thabo noted that the ANC branch in his constituency is led by a criminal, so he can’t mislead people into voting for it.

“I say to ANC comrades, when you say I should go campaign next year to tell people to vote ANC, how am I going to do that? To say vote ANC, when I know very well that the branch of the ANC in this constituency is led by a criminal You can’t. It’s not possible to go and say, Vote ANC for a criminal.”

The ex-statesman expressed uncertainty regarding his participation in the ANC’s campaign for the 2024 elections. Additionally, Simphiwe Dana enjoys a pleasant time traveling with Thabo Mbeki. In 1997, Nelson Mandela cautioned about the infiltration of undesirable individuals into the ANC during the conference, according to Mbeki.

“Something wrong is happening. As the ANC, we’re attracting into our ranks people who are not ANC. People who don’t have the values of the ANC but can see that to be a member of the ANC is to have a step ladder to government in order to have the possibility to steal “, Mbeki said.

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