visi„le for…es r—
DURBAN - Former ANC President Jacob Zuma said the ruling party is run by invisible individuals whose sole aim is to weaken its electoral support so that its founding mission of delivering a better life for the country’s poor majority remains a pipe dream.
Delivering the Oliver Tambo memorial lecture in uMlazi on Sunday, Zuma said the emergence of seven candidates contesting the party’s presidency was indicative of how wrong things had gone, adding that party branches should stop the decline.
Questions
Zuma said he would be among the branch members that would ask tough questions at the conference to be held at Nasrec in a few weeks time, which he labelled a do-or-die event for the ANC. Among the tough questions, he said President Cyril Ramaphosa should be asked about the Phala Phala farm robbery scandal.
Addressing the crowd, the former president said there were several matters worrying him about the ANC, including:
*The emergence of interim task teams instead of genuine branches that accounted to members.
*A weak administration, reflected by the party’s inability to pay its own staff members.
*The failure to implement the party’s resolutions at the last conference, including the nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank.
*The use of money to manipulate ANC processes, including what he described as ‘theft of conferences’. He decried the current membership system, saying it was faulty and subject to manipulation by those in power, and should be stopped. In addition, the former ANC president said the ruling party’s policies and politics were controlled by a patronage network of corrupt leaders.