Mbeki tells young voters to demand answers from ruling party
‘Ask the ANC: given what has happened over all these years, what justifies that I vote for you?’
Image: Thapelo Morebudi
Former president Thabo Mbeki has challenged the youth to question the ruling party’s stance before casting their votes in next year's elections.
“Ask the ANC: given what has happened over all these years, what justifies that I vote for you?” Mbeki said at the University of SA’s Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs.
The former president said the youth must demand answers from the ANC before voting, adding that to vote was to have a view.
“The youth needs to raise those questions [instead of] never participating in voting because that’s part of the process of determining the future of SA,” he said.
According to Mbeki, youth organisations have become “very weak” and are not making an impact on the youth.
Mbeki said he will not campaign for the ANC in next year’s elections.
“When you say I must go campaign next year [and] tell people to vote ANC, how am I going to do that when I know very well the branch of the ANC in this constituency is led by a criminal? You can’t. It is not possible to go and say people must vote for a criminal.”
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