Former President Thabo Mbeki has implored South Africans to keep the African National Congress (ANC) to its promises, saying if the ANC fails then South Africa will also fail and collapse.
He was speaking during an engagement with professionals and business people in Johannesburg on Thursday night. The roundtable discussion was part of the ANC’s election campaign.
Mbeki’s interaction with dozens of professionals and captains of industries focused on the ANC’s 2021 local government election manifesto.
What caught his attention is the call to urgently finalise a social compact between social partners to achieve the country’s fundamental social transformation to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Mbeki says for all this to be achieved, the business will have to come to the party. He says the ANC cannot afford to see the much-talked-about social compact fail, insisting that he is excited that for the first time since 1994 business is willing to work with the government to overcome the many challenges facing the country.
Mbeki decried a serious lack of capacity in different departments to see through these commitments.
The former ANC president also stressed the importance of renewal. He says the governing party had resorted to communities to help select its councillor candidates because its branches simply cannot be trusted with that.
Mbeki has since called for a thorough discussion on the renewal of the ANC saying this is the only way to help restore the governing party to its former glory.
VIDEO: Former President Mbeki says if ANC fails then South Africa will collapse
#ANCLGE2021 | The ANC is too big to fail, and if it fails, the country will collapse. Hence it is very important to make sure that all these commitments are implemented
– Cde Thabo Mbeki, Former ANC President #BuildingBetterCommunities#VoteANC pic.twitter.com/TMuGdc9Xcn
— #VoteANC (@MYANC) October 21, 2021
#ANCLGE2021 | Guests arrive ahead of Former President Thabo Mbeki’s engagement with Business and Professionals #BuildingBetterCommunities #VoteANC pic.twitter.com/Flg1LOIp2C
— #VoteANC (@MYANC) October 21, 2021
