| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
The ANC rejects with contempt attempts by a weekly newspaper to portray its forthcoming December Conference as an arena of a fight between 'communists, trade unionists and conservatives' sourced to some faceless and nameless 'insiders'. Equally rejected is the notion that there is 'jockeying for positions' in the ANC and other respected leaders of the movement are in for a rough ride.
The article also insinuates that the national chairperson of the ANC, Mr Thabo Mbeki, has written and anonymously circulated a document titled 'Unmandated Responses' to members of the organisations national executive committee. Mr Mbeki and the ANC as a whole do not know of such a document.
Mr Mbeki addressed an inter-regional summit of the ANC early this year on the role of the organisation in the new circumstances. He was subsequently asked by the summit to produce a document from his speaking notes, which he produced and through the office of the organisation's Secretary General circulated to members of the NEC.
The document was then later discussed in an open plenary of the organisation's NEC. The document titled 'From Resistance to Reconstruction' has since been made public knowledge and has been a discussion item in ANC provincial conferences.
The ANC finds the contents of the article in the weekly highly misleading, slanderous and totally against the ethics of professional journalism. The article amounts to shoddy journalism on the part of the writer. A single call to the ANC office would have given the writer of the article a clear perspective of what the December Conference will be all about and would have given the writer facts regarding the document that was written by Cde Thabo Mbeki.
The ANC once again appeals for objective reporting from all members of the press.