POLITICAL NEWS - Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu, who will be contesting the ANC deputy president position, wants to turn the organisation’s second-highest position into a vibrant post carrying weight within the party.

Speaking during an exclusive interview with The Witness, Mchunu vowed that his presence would be felt should he be elected to the position.

I don’t see the role of deputy president of the ANC as a ceremonial one … I see it as quite an active role, with a huge potential to really, as part of the leadership team, make things move … and move in the right direction.

Currently an ANC national executive committee (NEC) member, Mchunu is the party’s former KwaZulu-Natal provincial chairperson and the province’s former premier.

Mchunu talks about ANC National conference in December.

Mchunu, who on Tuesday visited The Witness‘ new offices in Pietermaritzburg’s Hoosen Haffejee Street, said he will not “hide behind the collective” when it comes to discussions and decisions of the party’s leadership.

As deputy president, you don’t hide behind other members of the ANC and do nothing … you have to come up with ideas, you have to be active, you have to be innovative and you have to articulate challenges that are there.

A teacher by training, Mchunu hails from kwaHlabisa in northern KZN. Having attended school in Pietermaritzburg, Mchunu has strong ties with the city — where some of the ANC members are supporting his current bid to be elected the party’s next deputy president.

A former KZN Education MEC, Mchunu conceded there were challenges in the country that the ANC leadership needed to address if the party were to remain power.

“What I know is that as a country we are going through some very serious challenges,” he said.
The first one is economic growth … we have been declining since 2009. There hasn’t been any steady and sustainable economic growth for quite some time.

“That’s a major crisis because this thing called the triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment is embedded in one problem — slow economic growth. If you address the challenge of slow economic growth, then you are in a strong position to address all these three challenges,” said Mchunu.

For South Africa to begin addressing the challenge of slow economic growth, Mchunu said, there was an urgent need for government to come up with solutions for the country’s power supply crisis.

For starters — to make sure that whatever interventions you come up with to grow the economy is sustainable, you need to resolve the issue of energy supply, which is currently a daily crisis.
Apart from the weak power generation infrastructure, South Africa has an additional challenge due to the fact that most of its power stations are fired by coal — which the global community considers to be one of the main contributors to climate change.

In its recent report, the World Bank warned South Africa to expedite the transition from coal to renewable energy if the country was to grow its economy.

While Mchunu agreed that the switch from coal to renewables needed to be fast-tracked, he said everything needed to be done to stabilise the current power crisis.

This erratic energy supply is causing a lot of damage to our economy. People running businesses are at times forced to close for several hours due to power outages — they lose clients and money as a result.
In the interim, practically, you are faced with an immediate situation which requires an immediate solution.
As we speak other countries, including in the West, continue to burn coal. So, it would be unfair to say to us ‘stop burning coal with immediate effect’. While doing away with coal is the main objective, there should be a transition. This is even more so given the current energy crisis facing our country.
In exploring the energy mix model, Mchunu said, gas should be viewed as one of the options that could play a major role in addressing the current energy crisis.

The minister is contesting the senior position in the ANC at a time when the party is facing a reputation crisis due to, among other things, the fact that there has been poor service delivery in many municipalities and other government departments currently controlled by the party.

On the ANC’s poor service delivery track record, Mchunu said there was an “urgent need” for the party to demonstrate that it was taking public concerns on service delivery seriously.

The most worrying aspect of this [poor service delivery] is that people on the ground link poor service delivery to corruption.
We need to ensure that competent people are appointed to the right positions, and that there are no vacant posts. Service delivery is critical for the credibility of the ANC.

This, coupled with the perceptions that ANC leaders were corrupt, Mchunu said, were matters that the party has to address if it is to win back the citizens’ trust.

“Government exists on the basis that it will deliver services. If you don’t deliver, you lose the respect of citizens. We need as the ANC to demonstrate that we are taking the concerns of citizens seriously,”

Mchunu conceded that the ANC was battling public perceptions that the party was soft on party members who perpetrate corruption

It’s unfortunate that there are those who question ANC interventions such as the step-aside policy. The fact of the matter is that the ANC found itself in a situation where its existence was under threat due to public perceptions that the organisation protects those who are corrupt.
One of the ways in which the ANC is protecting its image is through the implementation of the step-aside policy.

Other candidates contesting the ANC deputy president position include the party’s acting secretary general, Paul Mashatile; Human Settlement minister Mmamoloko Kubayi; and the minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola.

Article: Caxton publication, The Witness