Head of Political Education David Makhura says the ANC should take the renewal process seriously or face another electoral loss in the coming elections.
He emphasised that the party's internal divisions resulted from the ANC's long-standing disregard for the basic necessities of society.
Makhura was reflecting on the ANC policy positions on the sidelines of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting that took place at Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, Gauteng on Saturday.
He said it was time for the ANC to take the renewal process seriously or else it will face another electoral loss in the coming elections.
This is after he admitted that the breakaway parties contributed to the ANC losing power in the recent elections.
“So one of the reasons we say has impacted on the ANC electoral performance is the breakaway parties.
“A breakaway and again all the breakaway parties you know formed at different points, and that has had an impact on because we in what we call the motive forces, those social classes and strategy that constitute from whom the ANC has really mobilised for change, get affected by the breakaway parties,” he said.
For the first time in South African democratic history, the ANC failed to win a majority in the elections.
According to him, the party's primary priorities over the previous 30 years ought to have been the persistently high rates of unemployment, poverty, and inequality.
"One of the major reasons we are where we are, we have disappointed the forces and the support base that believe in us, also because there has been organisational and ideological problems that we call degeneration.
"The organisation is not in the right state and we have discussed this for many years. The ANC has severely eroded its ethical, intellectual, ideological and principles that we need to come out of acknowledging," he said.