Madam, - I regret very much that your December issues of the Saturday Irish Times arrived quite late in South Africa, but I cannot leave Patrick Laurence's article "Mbeki accuses ultra-leftists of abusing ANC membership" (December 21st) to go unanswered. Your readers deserve better coverage of the African National Congress than this and, in general, over issues going to the heart of our democratic transformation.
The 51st national conference was an enormous success and was inclusive of all views and shades within the ANC. The president's speech, far from being factional, was both positive and reconciliatory. His remarks about certain ill-disciplined elements were not directed at destroying the alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions but rather at strengthening it, as was evidenced by the positive comments made by the alliance partners after the conference.
Nor was the voting for the new national executive committee dominated by a "class of black moguls". What gives Laurence licence to use such bombastic and offensive language? In fact the majority of the 3,000 delegates were black (African) and yet they elected a Coloured in the number one spot in the elections for the 60 members of the NEC. In addition, non-Africans were demographically disproportionately over-represented in the top 30, myself included.
Nor was there a purge of so-called ultra-leftists. This is in line with the ANC's long tradition of non-racialism and reflects on the inclusive nature of the organisation, something of which few other political organisations around the world can boast.
The implication that the deputy secretary general was not re-elected as one of the six senior office bearers because of her SACP allegiance is misplaced, since she had decided not to make herself available for re-election for reasons that had nothing to do with politics. - Yours, etc.,
Prof KADER ASMAL,
Minister of Education,
Member, National Executive
Committee of the ANC,
Pretoria,
South Africa.