ANC veteran Naledi Pandor says there is nothing worse than a leader with no solutions — “we can’t be asking someone else ‘how do we solve this?’.”
Her remarks come just more than a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the national dialogue convention, asked why so many South Africans still live in poverty and inequality, a question critics say he should be answering, not asking.
Speaking at a memorial lecture in honour of ANC stalwart Gertrude Shope, Pandor said ANC branches should be at the forefront of solving basic service delivery failures.
“There should not be a non-functioning clinic if there is an ANC branch; there should not be a school without stationery if there is an ANC branch; there should not be an area which runs out of water and has crooks delivering water in trucks if there is an ANC branch and there should not be criminals who steal [electricity cables] if we have an ANC branch.”
Pandor said the party could not afford to sit back while citizens suffered. “We’re confronting serious problems, all of them require a strong ANC.”
She called for action against crime and lessons from international examples. “We have to do something about these criminals. We’ve got to learn from other countries on how the problem was fought. All the problems we confront are not unique, they have occurred in other societies.”
Reflecting on Shope’s values, Pandor warned against indecisive leadership. “There is nothing worse in an organisation, or in a country, than leaders with no solutions. We can’t be asking someone else, ‘how do we solve this?’. The people are looking to us to solve it.”
TimesLIVE