Ramaphosa: Time to end factionalism
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma’s removal as head of state will cost the ANC votes in rural areas and divide the ruling party.
This was the argument made by Zuma’s backers, the Umkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association (MKMVA), ahead of the party’s first national executive committee (NEC) meeting tomorrow.
Zuma’s detractors are calling for the NEC to recall him from the Union Buildings to bolster the party’s chances at the 2019 elections.
The ANC Top Six will meet today to finalise the agenda and preparations of tomorrow’s NEC meeting where they will discuss preparations for the January 8 Statement to be delivered by Ramaphosa on Saturday in East London, where the party will be holding its 106th birthday celebrations.
The push to oust Zuma forced ANC officials to visit KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday in what was believed to be part of efforts to manage the backlash that could arise should Zuma be recalled.
Yesterday, ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and other party officials continued with unity efforts in KZN.
MKMVA president Kebby Maphatsoe said yesterday that while Zuma was no longer president after the party’s national elective conference last month, he still enjoyed overwhelming support
“You may undermine Zuma but if you remove him, there are many people in the rural areas who will become angry and decide to not vote for the ANC in 2019.
“In the rural areas they love President Zuma a lot; it’s only in your suburbs here where you hear a lot of noise because it’s a middle class, they have arrived.
“These people that are making noise in the NEC about Zuma, they want the ANC to lose elections,” Maphatsoe said.
Ramaphosa yesterday said that a rerun of the KZN elective conference would unite disgruntled factions in the province.
Ramaphosa made the comments at the grave site of the ANC’s founding president John Langalibalele Dube at Ohlange Institute in Inanda, north of Durban.
Tributes were also paid at the grave sites of former ANC presidents Josiah Gumede, Pixley Seme and Albert Luthuli.
“We do not want a divided ANC here… we will be working day and night to forge unity in KZN. We must proceed to unite this province and make sure that we move to a provincial conference that is going to unite the province.”
Ramaphosa reminded members and leaders that forging unity was crucial with the 2019 general elections around the corner. “We can’t go into 2019 divided, the work of unity here in KZN must start as soon as possible. We must rid ourselves of factionalism.”
ANC provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli said he was not aware of any decision that the provincial conference must be reconvened.
One of the chief applicants in the matter, Lawrence Dube, agreed with Ramaphosa.
“This is what we have been requesting. We need to go to conference to have a provincial leadership. We need a neutral structure, perhaps in a form of a task team, to prepare for that,” Dube said.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa says the ANC must return to its roots and draw on the values of its founders in order to strengthen itself.
The new ANC president was speaking at a wreath-laying ceremony for former ANC president John Langalibalele Dube at Ohlange High School in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, as part of the party’s 106th anniversary celebrations.
“We want to go back to the value system that guided
their lives, so that we root out all of the bad things that have crept into our movement and the body politic of our country.
“We are determined to root out corruption in our ranks, as it undermines our people. By doing this, we will also be strengthening the ANC,” said Ramaphosa. He said that South Africa’s history started in 1912 when Dube became the first president of the ANC.
The newly elected leadership has been in the province since Sunday, where they paid homage to Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini.
Yesterday was set aside for wreath-laying and tributes at the graves of ANC founders. “We are here to report back to our first president. When president Nelson Mandela came to vote here in 1994, he said, ‘I have come to report that SA is free’.
“Today we are here to report that we have emerged from our 54th conference and held a successful conference.
“The ANC is still here, is still alive and has elected a unified leadership that is going to forge unity within the movement.”
He said the new leaders also wanted to celebrate the promise Dube made to South Africans of a non-racial, non-sexist society that was democratic and prosperous.
The party’s 54th national conference held last month had adopted “important policies” that Dube and others had advocated, said Ramaphosa.
These included justice and returning land to the majority of the population. “Many years later, we are saying the land will be returned.
“We are going to take the land and put it in the hands of our people whether they like it or not. We will do this to enhance the development of our country.”
Dube would have wanted the ANC to commence with a programme of radical socio-economic transformation “in interest of the people”.