ANC seeks own check on cadres

Johannesburg - The ANC is mulling a mechanism to monitor the performance of its members in government, party secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.

"The lekgotla agreed that the ANC, as opposed to government, also needs to come up with a mechanism to monitor and review the performance of its cadres deployed in government," Mantashe told the media when he gave feedback on weekend's national executive committee (NEC) lekgotla.

Government already has an oversight mechanism with Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane responsible for monitoring officials.

ANC policy chief Jeff Radebe said the thrust of the NEC meeting was how the party would work differently in 2010 and beyond.

"The issue of performance measurement is one of the paramount approaches. What we are interested in is the implementation of ANC policies," he said, with the party focusing on the implementation of its 2009 election manifesto.

Radebe said the party wanted to see outcomes on each of the priority areas contained in the manifesto - health, crime, education, rural development and job creation.

In his anniversary statement in Kimberley, Zuma said the party would "tighten its deployment procedures" to make it more "objective and transparent".

Avoiding 'street fights'

On reported moves to have Mantashe replaced at the party's 2012 elective conference, the secretary general said the party leadership would not be drawn into "street fights" over positions.

"We are not going to get into that street fight," he said.

He watered down tensions within the ruling alliance between the African National Congress, the SA Communist Party and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), dismissing weekend reports that President Jacob Zuma was called upon at the NEC meeting to intervene and call for unity.

- Sapa