The current ANC is in shambles and whoever replaces President Jacob Zuma will have to start from scratch and clean up his mess, former president Kgalema Motlanthe said on Wednesday.
"Whoever takes over is going to start from scratch", he said on the Eusebius McKaiser Show on radio 702 about the state of South Africa 23 years after democracy.
"The current leadership does itself a disservice and the structures from within act as if they are the organisation," he said.
Motlanthe said if Zuma were removed immediately, South Africa would be a new "better environment".
"Conscience is what separates us from the animal kingdom... conscience is treated as something not important within the ANC," he said.
He stressed that the current political turmoil within the ruling party was caused by the current leadership and Zuma.
"Conscience is treated as something not important within the ANC."Kgalema Motlanthe
Motlanthe was referring to the fact that Zuma has been implicated in one scandal after another since he took office in 1999, first as deputy president of the country and then as president. From an allegedly corrupt relationship with the Gupta family to multi-million security rand upgrades to his Nkandla home, to alleged corruption in the arms deal -- the list goes on.
"Every time there is a scandal", it is a diversion, [Zuma] he just carries [on], there is no atonement".
However, Motlanthe would still vote for the ANC because he still believed in the movement.
"I would still vote for the ANC because I believe in the ANC.. There is the ANC and then there is the ANC leadership". Kgalema Motlanthe
He addsed that although the ANC was to blame for the current state of South Africa, much of the blame could be traced back to the terrible Bantu education system.
"Bantu education has created this situation, this education meant that Africans will not be productive in the economy," he said.