KwaZulu-Natal African National Congress (ANC) provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said on Thursday that the party’s step-aside rule will never resolve the country’s economic challenges.  

Addressing the media with his Limpopo counterpart Reuben Madadzhe, Mtolo said the masses of “our people are running out of patience as they live in abject poverty”.  

Both provinces believe that the rule is weakening the ANC and defocusing members.

There has been wide debate on the rule as the ANC plans its fifty-fifth conference to elect new leadership with some of its members having had to step aside owing to allegations of involvement in graft.

Mtolo said the province believed that leaders such as former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede had been targeted with prolonged court cases under the pretext of investigations. 

He expressed concern that “skewed and inconsistent implementation” of the step-aside resolution had divided the ANC and the alliance.

“We have resolved that both ANC KZN and ANC Limpopo leaders will collectively engage delegates attending the national conference to push for the total scrapping of the step-aside rule. Alternatively, the step-aside rule must be strengthened in order to ensure that it is applied consistently,” said Mtolo.

He also said it was “concerning” that State institutions such as the Special Investigating Unit, the National Prosecuting Authority and others, are “vulnerable to abuse and to be used for factional and ulterior motives”.

Mtolo suggested that these institutions may even be manipulated by ANC members who are in control of State power for their own interests.  

“Even those who are not in control of the State or within the ANC are likely to use the step-aside rule to advance their hidden agendas, which ultimately weakens the ANC,” he added.