Fikile Mbalula's views in his article, "Let's debate ANC Leadership" (Sowetan February 23 2012) sound as if all of a sudden he has waken up to a surprise of a new organisation. The ANC has its own principles and historical way of approaching leadership issues that have become an entrenched culture.
Mbalula conveniently concocts a wide range of issues ranging from leadership to organisational renewal, redesign, and modernisation. A quick browse into literature posted at ANC website shows that all these issues have been dealt with extensively in previous conferences of the ANC and still remain central in debates leading to Mangaung.
Former ANC president, OR Tambo used to encourage young people not only to train militarily but to equip themselves with technical skills so as to be ready to assume leadership when the ANC assumes power
What makes the debate on "general mix" a bit strange is that this time around it is coupled with a name of a particular person and cannot be divorced from personal ambition. This pollutes the whole debate as it has connotations of "now it's our our turn to lead".
Personal ambition cannot be encouraged in an organisation such as the ANC since revolutionary leadership is about selflessness and prioritising daily struggles of the people, especially the poor stratum of the working class. It's a privilege and not an entitlement when you are given responsibility to lead.
Further, it's not always necessary to assume positions of leadership to make an impact in the organisation and society as a whole. We can take a leaf from the founding president of the ANC, Langalibalele Dube, who was elected in absentia since he was already an imminent person in society.