He said what is needed now is the creation of an “enabling environment” in the ANC that can relieve comrades from intimidation, fear, gate-keeping and slate politics because that is what in fact robs the ANC of good leaders.
Mpumalanga ANC contender Peter Nyoni believes in the politics of vision and not just having a large number of followers towards an elective conference.
He said numbers do not bring any change in our society but ideas “and not just ideas but ideas based on principles bring change” in our society.
He said it always happened that a leader would be elevated to power by numbers and when the people realised they had put somebody with no vision they got disappointed and stopped following that leader.
Nyoni was speaking with journalist Zingisa Chirwa on her Rise FM show on Tuesday evening this week. He wants to be the chairman of the ANC in Mpumalanga.
“As a leader you have to understand why you are in a particular space,” Nyoni who boasts 30-years of experience in politics told Zingisa.
ALSO RELATED: Nyoni heading to Luthuli to ‘demand’ Mpumalanga PGC
“And leadership again is the capacity to influence people through inspiration which is generated by passion, motivated by vision, produced by conviction and ignited by a purpose.
“The purpose of being there,” he said.
“And based on that purpose you have to develop a strong conviction, something that will say to you, ‘this which I believe in I am prepared to die for’,” said Nyoni.
Nyoni said he had been approached by quarters of some branches in the eHlanzeni region to come fill the vacant position left by former provincial leader DD Mabuza when he got elected the deputy president on 18 December 2017.
He is amongst a large number of contestants who want the same seat, like Charles Makola and David Dube who are former provincial deputy chairmen in Mabuza’s first term (Makola) and second term (Dube), Mbombela speaker Mandla Msibi and current secretary Mandla Ndlovu, these are just some of those gunning for the Mpumalanga ANC’s top job.
ALSO RELATED: Mabuza aids Mandla Ndlovu’s campaign, endorses him as his successor
Nyoni said when he led the Save ANC Mpumalanga campaign in 2015 he got suspended as a member of the party’s provincial executive committee and could not make it into it again when an elective congress was held later that year.
“I’m now an ordinary member of the ANC,” he said.
“It was a campaign that was meant to ensure that we deal with disunity in the ANC, gate-keeping which is so rife and slate politics which for a very long time has deprived effective leadership in the ANC. I was actually challenging those things,” he said.
His Save ANC Mpumalanga grouping was opposed to Mabuza returning to be the chairman of the ANC for a third term, calling him a “Nkurunziza of Mpumalanga” – a label that was likening him to Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza whose campaign for a third term in office caused riots and widespread violence in that country.
Nyoni said leaders do not think about “what will happen to me if I do this but what will happen to the organisation if I don’t do this”.
“I need my brain because my brain is my primary tool that will enable me to think and no one must endeavour to think for me and say this is a collective decision when in fact it is a one man’s decision and that is what we are totally against. Let all of us effectively participate in the life of our organisation,” he said.
“We must be allowed the space to contribute meaningfully because you must understand that our organisation has deteriorated a lot. The trust account is now depleted, deposit that trust into it,” Nyoni said.
A provincial general council that will elect Mabuza’s successor and then fill the deputy chairperson position as well as filling another position in the PEC will be held on 15 September 2018.
(edited by ZK)
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