The African National Congress has chided non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) for not bettering the lives of communities, resolving to go out and win back its leaders who have left the party for this sector.
The party says these leaders are now involved in school governing bodies, transport forums, health committees, HIV and Aids local units, co-operatives, community policing forums, pensions, social welfare committees and development forums.
"The ANC and its government must focus resources and energy in helping and capacitating initiatives ... rather than waste a lot of time with so-called NGOs and CBOs, which are used as pressure groups or lobbyists by international funders and donors who have their own agendas to undermine our intellectual and political capacity as committed members of society to our government and leadership," said KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary Sipho Gcabashe.
Presenting his report at the ANC's provincial congress this weekend, he said "our problem is that we isolate the same good people that we should win back to ensure the implementation of transformation".
He said the "theatre" of NGOs and CBOs had been emerging since 1994, and they are working closely with government structures.
The government, however, did not seem to notice the role they were playing. He warned that of these organisations, masquerading as NGOs and CBOs, "some are opposition parties".
He said the ANC's relationship with the Minority Front had proved that the constituencies that the two parties represent could be the driving force of speeding up the transformation process, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.
"The ANC and the MF must meet regularly to strategise on how to deal with issues of social, economic upliftment and racism in our communities.
