‘Ask the ANC: what justifies that I vote for you?’, Mbeki tells young voters

Former president Thabo Mbeki has pleaded with the youth to question the ruling party's stance before casting their votes in next year's elections.

“Ask the ANC: given what has happened over all these years, what justifies that I vote for you?” said Mbeki, speaking at the University of South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs.

The former president said the youth must demand answers from the ANC before voting, adding that to vote was to have a view.

“If I say to the young people, 'Please vote for me', they must ask me why. If I say, 'I am handsome', they must say, 'No, we want something more substantial to vote for you'.

“Ask the ANC, what justifies that I vote for you when there are so many negatives?

“The youth needs to raise those questions [instead of] never participating in voting because that's part of the process of determining the future of South Africa,” he said.

According to Mbeki, youth organisations have become “very weak” and are not making an impact on the youth.

“They are not saying, 'The future of this country is your responsibility and you can't delegate that responsibility to anybody'.”

Mbeki said he will not campaign for the ANC in next year's elections.

“When you say I must go campaign next year [and] tell to people vote ANC, how am I going to do that when I know very well the branch of the ANC in this constituency is led by a criminal? You can't. It is not possible to go and say people must vote for a criminal.”

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