Provinces at odds over Zuma
With less than a week to go before the ANC national policy conference, two of the biggest provinces — the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal — emerged on opposite sides of the political divide, with the former emerging as a strong anti-Zuma bloc and the latter expressing full support in President Jacob Zuma.
The two provinces are traditionally the most important during voting at the elective conference in December. But neither pronounced on their preferred candidates to take over the reins of the ANC when the current top leadership’s term comes to an end.
Gauteng ANC chairman Paul Mashatile told delegates in the closing address following its policy conference this weekend that he favoured a consensus on new leadership.
This should not be a mash-up of factions, but those deserving of leadership with the respect of the wider SA public.
Zuma cancelled his appearance at the Eastern Cape gathering where he had been scheduled to speak as party president. His replacement, NEC member Fikile Xasa, pulled no
punches against the “Guptas and their friends”, with the party calling for their isolation.
No reason was given by the ANC Eastern Cape provincial leaders for Zuma’s no-show. Instead the president made a surprise appearance at the KwaZulu-Natal provincial policy conference on Friday night.
Zuma has not made an appearance at any ANC event of significance in the Eastern Cape in 2017.
Xasa, addressing a hyped-up crowd of hundreds of delegates, said it was unfortunate that the people of SA had voted the ANC into power yet it seemed that role had now been assumed by the Guptas.
“Those among us within the ANC, who are allowing the Guptas to infiltrate us, must be isolated. We must isolate the Guptas and their friends and we will not be silenced by anyone on this,” he said.
Sihle Zikalala, ANC KwaZulu-Natal chairman, said at the provincial general council on Sunday that the convergence of forces in SA who “share a common short-term goal” to remove Zuma and the ANC were “dangerous, illogical and unreliable”.
He also made it clear that KwaZulu-Natal would fight for radical economic transformation and would support land expropriation without compensation at the national policy conference.
Zikalala said economic warfare had been unleashed against the ANC and its government and that the country’s downgrades to junk status by ratings agencies, were based on political considerations.
The Gauteng ANC did not give specific details on policies it would support, but criticised the term “white monopoly capital”.
“The ANC will continue to fight against white domination,” Mashatile said in his address.
“Monopoly capital remains the enemy of the national democratic revolution. [But] there is no [such] thing as white monopoly capital in our vocabulary.” Mashatile said the Gauteng ANC would discuss the kind of leadership that would lead the party into the future.
The key resolution from the Limpopo provincial general council was support for a new position of a second deputy secretary-general in the ANC top leadership. The province also wants the ANC NEC reduced to 60 people, saying it was bloated and there was no evidence of valuable input made by the current committee of 86.
Delegates at the council made no mention of the succession tension in the party, with provincial leaders rebuking those behind the different factions ahead of the national elective congress.