Motlanthe: I never said I won’t vote ANC
Former president Kgalema Motlanthe says comments, in which he said the ANC would have to lose an election to renew itself, were taken out of context.
Motlanthe visited the ANC’s pavilion at the Rand Show on Friday and was asked about the remarks he made in an interview with the BBC in 2017.
In the interview, Motlanthe also said the governing party had become "associated with corruption and failure".
"It would be good for the ANC itself, and let me tell you why: Because those elements who are in it for the largesse will quit it, will desert it and only then would the possibility arise for salvaging whatever is left of it," he was quoted as saying.
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But speaking in Nasrec on Friday, Motlanthe defended the comments by saying they were made ahead of the ANC's 2017 elective conference.
Motlanthe said the conference presented an opportunity to self-correct.
"The point I was making was that - because that was in the lead-up to an elective conference of the ANC - that elective conference presents an excellent opportunity for the ANC to renew itself. However, it would take lots of courage for the ANC to - at the conference - to renew itself.
"And then I went on to say failing which - if the opportunity presented by the elective conference ceased - it would then require the ANC to hit rock bottom such as losing elections for the penny to drop."
Motlanthe dismissed claims that he said he would never vote for the ANC.
"I've never said I will not vote for the ANC. I was interviewed by (702 radio presenter) Eusebius McKaiser and after dealing with the analysis of the state of health of the organisation,he put the question to me: 'Will you vote for the ANC?' And I said: 'Yes I will vote for the ANC’. And I said yes: ‘I will campaign for the ANC'. So that is on record."