The African National Congress’ (ANC’s) fifth National Policy Conference must diagnose the cause of decline in electoral support following the party’s losses in the 2016 Municipal Elections.

This was proposed by President Jacob Zuma at the opening of party’s conference in Johannesburg on Friday.

He said that while the movement suffered a serious setback in the elections, this year’s Policy Conference would be used to discuss what lessons could be learnt, as well as solutions.

“We lost control of some key metropolitan municipalities: Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay. In Ekurhuleni, we managed to form a coalition to retain control of the council. Opposition parties formed coalitions to wrest control from our party. Part of the focus of renewal is aimed at enabling the ANC to regain that lost ground,” Zuma affirmed.

Earlier this week the ANC managed to win Mogale City local municipality, in Gauteng, back from the Democratic Alliance (DA).

Zuma pointed out that he had recently warned the DA in Parliament that the ANC would reclaim its hold on many municipalities. ANC members and supporters have since been engaged in varying degrees of discussion to discern “what has gone wrong with their beloved movement and how we lost the metros”.

According to Zuma, the ANC’s National Executive Council meeting, in the aftermath of the announcement of the results, attributed the party’s loss of support to perceptions in society such as that the ANC was soft on corruption, self-serving and arrogant.

“We must unite in curbing the possible abuse of power and corruption among ANC members. It is critical for us to discuss the impact of the ANC being in government and our cadres having access to State power and resources,” he said.

STATE CAPTURE AND LEADERSHIP
Zuma stressed the ANC’s support in the establishment of a judicial commission of enquiry to look into the capture of the State through business interests.

The debate around this issue needed to include a thorough analysis of South Africa’s political economy to understand what was meant by State capture, he added.

Zuma also suggested that the ANC assess whether its problems lay with the way in which party leadership was selected.

“The leadership election processes must be democratic and free from manipulation and external influences to protect the movement from abuse. We must ensure leaders are selected in line with the requirements outlined in [the ANC] blueprint,” he said.