JZ has to report to CR, his boss, weekly

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma will meet his party boss, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, every Tuesday, the governing party’s top officials resolved this week.

ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule said the party’s national officials, also referred to as the Top Six, took this decision amid calls within and outside the governing party for Zuma to step down as head of state.

Magashule would not elaborate on the reasons behind the move.

The Free State premier addressed a packed multi-purpose centre in eNgcobo near Mthatha yesterday as part of preparations for the ANC’s January 8 statement tomorrow.

He said the party had its own process and would not be dictated to by the media and other sectors of society demanding that Zuma be recalled as the country’s president, including the clergy.

“There are no two centres of power in the ANC. The party is the centre of power, we resolved this in the Free State in 1996,” Magashule said.

He also slammed the factionalism that has ravaged the party, pledging to serve under Ramaphosa even though he wanted ANC national executive committee (NEC) member Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to succeed Zuma as party leader.

Magashule said the fact that one was elected an NEC member did not mean that one was the most accomplished leader.

According to Magashule, because of factionalism and slates, many capable ANC leaders failed to make it to the party’s NEC and many productive leaders were not on the highest decision-making structure between conferences.

He cited the failure of SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande to make it to the NEC at last month’s elective conference.

Magashule also gave a glimpse of how he would run the ANC as its administrative boss.

He would make mayors, ministers and even the president to account. “Everyone must account,” Magashule added.

He promised to dish out jobs to struggling and unemployed Umkhonto we Sizwe veterans to work for mayors, MECs and other state political office-bearers. “They can also act as your spies.” Magashule, until last month, the ANC’s longest-serving provincial chairperson, said party members must avoid being misled by leaders who want to use them in their quest for higher office.

He warned the ANC would lose power if it was not united as happened in Nelson Mandela Bay, Johannesburg and Tshwane in the 2016 local government elections.

Magashule also said this week’s special NEC meeting had discussed Zuma’s free education announcement last month.

“Free education is only for the poor, those who earn between zero and R350 000 a year. I earn over R3.2 million a year. I must pay for my children’s education,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa used his visit to former president Nelson Mandela’s homestead in Qunu to again warn those who stole taxpayers’ money that he would “deal” with them.

Ramaphosa, who led a delegation of ANC officials to Mandela’s residence, said the ANC would rid itself of graft in honour of Madiba. – Additional reporting by George Matlala

THERE ARE NO TWO CENTRES OF POWER IN THE ANC. THE PARTY IS THE CENTRE OF POWER. WE RESOLVED THAT IN THE FREE STATE IN 1996