Analysts pinpoint party’s problem areas

Factionalism, patronage and biased appointment of incompetent ward councillors are affecting the ANC negatively in the Eastern Cape, political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni says.

He and fellow political analyst Mcebisi Mdletyana addressed the party’s provincial lekgotla in East London on Sunday.

ANC provincial chair Oscar Mabuyane said the party had asked the independent analysts to give them a true reflection of the party’s performance.

Fikeni said there was a lack of political leadership in the province. He said rural development was an afterthought for the ANC government – more development went to urban areas.

“[The] decline of education, especially relevant skills training, personalisation of power and weakening of institutions.

“Political factionalism in the ruling party, patronage, municipal strongmen syndrome and biased appointment of ward councillors and concentration of projects around them [affects the ANC negatively],” Fikeni said.

Mabuyane said Fikeni’s analysis was true and offered a chance for the party to selfcorrect.

“We structured this lekgotla in an unconventional way so that we could be told [what] we needed to hear.

“We are still sitting with high unemployment, above 30%, [and half] that number is made up [of] young people.

“A lot of ground has been covered, but we are still dealing with high levels of inefficiency,” Mabuyane said.

He agreed that patronage was a big problem.

“These unfortunate networks that have trampled over logical and feasible projects continue to undermine the work of the government.

“We need to come up with a model and request the National Treasury to consider giving us a fund specifically to build infrastructure.”

The meeting, which ends on Tuesday, was called to identify priorities requiring urgent attention and to guide the work of those deployed in government.