The ANC wants government to remove people who are not performing from public services, secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday.
This call comes ahead of the 2016 local government elections. There as being several results of mismanaged public funds, unfriendly and unhelpful customer service and a recent case of fraud by the Beaufort west mayor .
“Government is called upon to conduct a skills audit and remove those people who occupy positions they do not qualify for,” he told reporters in Johannesburg.
“The ANC must publicly and decisively deal with poor performance and corruption.” Mantashe said the African National Congress wanted to strengthen accountability and political management. He said a history teacher could not be appointed as a chief financial officer, for example.
Mantashe was briefing the media following the ANC’s three-day national executive committee lekgotla held in Pretoria this week. The committee also called on government to review non-viable municipalities.
Many believe the first to be retrenched should be non other than president Jacob Zuma, who has on every account shown that he is not capable of running the South African government.
Racism cannot be cured
“Those who are victims are impatient. Those who have been beneficiaries of racism have been emboldened and they say a number of things,” he told reporters in Pretoria.
He said President Jacob Zuma discussed the issue of racism at length while delivering his political report to the meeting.
This follows heated debate over racism which was sparked by comments in early January by real estate agent Penny Sparrow who called black beachgoers “monkeys”.
Racism has dominated the political narrative ahead of local government elections.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane last week called on racists not to vote for his party.
Mantashe on Wednesday said the solution was to “deal with social dynamics in society” and transform the economy.
“It should be access to land and the allocation of land to people who have been deprived of access to land.
“All programs must ensure that black people benefit from the economy of the country.”
He emphasised that it was not just about addressing social economic problems but restoring the dignity of the majority.
“Those who don’t have access to basic needs and basic necessities of development will never be able to debate whilst our people don’t even have access to land.
“That is why… we refer to accelerating of the allocation of land. If we don’t do that, we are unable to address inequality and racism.”
The discussions at the ANC lekgotla were expected to contribute to Zuma’s state of the nation address next month.
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