The star News Online
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Outgoing South African National Civic Organisation president Mlungisi Hlongwane has came under fire from all sides, including his old ally President Thabo Mbeki.
In an apparent reference to Hlongwane on the last day of Sanco's conference in Bloemfontein, Mbeki yesterday questioned what good a leader was if he divided the organisation that he headed.
"If I ran for the post of president of Sanco, and in the course of that divided Sanco and created factions within Sanco, and in the course of that created a situation that it was impossible to get any work done, then that presidency would be worth nothing."
Mbeki repeated his views about careerism in the ANC and what he described yesterday as the "sickness of people wanting to be leaders".
"Why do they not wait for the people to tell them to come and lead us?" he said to applause from delegates.
Mbeki's comments were perceived by Hlongwane's detractors, as well as supporters, as being directed at the Sanco president, who has been in office for a decade and who has been embroiled in a divisive battle with senior party leaders.
Hlongwane has been viewed as an ally of Mbeki, and he upset some within Sanco when he called for a third term for|the president.
Despite claiming that he did not want to be president again, Hlongwane this week has been hard at work behind the scenes trying to convince provinces to vote for him.
Mbeki made it clear that while the future looked bright for Sanco, it was perhaps time for a new leader to unite the once powerful organisation.
Describing Sanco as a critical alliance partner of the ANC, he said the organisation had a huge role to play in putting to good use the government's unspent millions.
He said Sanco, once mobilised again, would be in the ideal situation to spend that money on projects with which they were intimately involved as community leaders.
Again referring to Sanco's leadership battle, which often threatened to derail the conference, Mbeki said that asking to be voted for was a concept alien to the ANC and the tripartite alliance.