Mantashe: ANC suffers from a 'trust deficit' with voters

THE ANC‘s losses during the local government elections were not due to service delivery issues, but to a “trust deficit”, which should be addressed by “any changes” in the party‘s leadership at next year‘s elective conference, says ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe.

 He was speaking at the Big Five investors conference in Cape Town, where he tackled political issues that are impacting investor confidence.

He said the party had scored some “own goals”, which had created a “trust deficit” seen at the August polls.

Any new leadership elected at the party‘s conference next year would have to “talk to” this issue, he said.

Attempting to allay investor fears, Mantashe said South Africa was “politically stable”, evidenced by the fact that there had been “no wars or court challenges” over the election results.

He said that a “strong ANC is good for South Africa” and said the party “takes responsibility for its mess”.

Pointing to Nenegate, he said the change had “destroyed value totally and the rand collapsed completely.

 “On day three, as leaders of the ANC, we went to the president and said, please, swap him with Pravin (Gordhan), and luckily for us the president agreed.

“But nobody acknowledges how decisive that intervention was.”

Mantashe said the party had also told finance minister Gordhan and the Hawks to “stop your public spats”, which were affecting investor confidence.

“Our appeal to everyone was close the door, lock it, throw your key out of the window and only come back when you‘ve sorted out your problems,” he said.

On mineral resources minister Mosebenzi Zwane‘s statements over the banking sector, Mantashe said he had spoken “out of turn”.

He said it was “reckless to discredit one sector where South Africa is doing well”.

He said the country‘s banking sector, with an independent judiciary, were like South Africa‘s “insurance policy” and there should be no interference in these spheres.

On the student protests Mantashe said those who could afford to pay for a university education should.

- The Times