Battle for soul of ANC gets ugly
THE battle for the soul of the ANC got ugly, with Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, one of President Jacob Zuma’s backers, launching a scathing attack on party veterans and stalwarts who want the leader to step down.
Mbalula, one of those who stopped a motion of no confidence in the president at the ANC NEC, said the Zuma administration was undoing some of the problems created by some of the veterans.
“We can’t be blackmailed by the stalwarts who are filthy and stinking rich because they benefited from BEE (black economic empowerment). If they have made up their minds to sell out, they must leave the ANC out of it,” he said.
“We won’t be lectured by them. They masquerade as people who are genuinely concerned about the ANC, but we know they are not,” he added.
Mbalula was reacting to a statement by the veterans that those who blocked the motion of no confidence in Zuma at the meeting of the ANC’s top brass at the weekend were beneficiaries of state capture.
The veterans said Zuma supporters placed their own narrow “political and financial interests” above those of the country… the most vociferous support for the president would naturally have come from those most directly involved in the project of state capture and the associated web of factionalism and corruption,” the stalwarts said.
“This group has yet again shown they place their own narrow political and financial self-interests above those of the future of the ANC and to the detriment of the best interests of the country,” the veterans said.
Mbalula was one of the NEC members who backed Zuma during the heated debates on his fate. Mblula argued the stalwarts were not acting independently. “We are in fact reversing many wrong things done by them (stalwarts). They are filthy and stinking rich. They are masterminds of corruption.”
uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe also blasted the veterans, saying they should bring proof that those who supported Zuma were beneficiaries of state capture. “Those who want President Zuma to step down are rich. Some of them are long-serving cabinet ministers, they have good pensions.”
Contacted for comment, ANC stalwart the Reverend Frank Chikane said he was in Singapore and stalwart Murphy Morobe said he was not in a position to comment.
Another stalwart, Fazel Randera, said: “I don’t want to get into a discussion about what the minister said about us. I don’t want to attack anybody, we just want the ANC to go back to the principles of Madiba.”
ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said yesterday the NEC supported the proposal for a judicial commission into state capture.
He said the party also wanted reviews of the public protector’s State of Capture report acceleratedy. The report implicated Zuma’s friends, the Guptas, in interfering in the awarding of state contracts and appointments of ministers.
At the weekend reports of e-mails that implicated the Guptas in the running of government surfaced.
The documents also showed Zuma wanted to move his family to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
State capture claims are at the centre of calls, from in and outside the ANC, for Zuma to step down.
Just hours after Zuma and his backers thwarted attempts to unseat him, the ANC’s alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, yesterday renewed their calls he should step down.
Earlier this week, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande told the Cosatu central committee outside Pretoria they were being threatened by some in the ANC for speaking out against corruption in government.
“Some of our comrades are threatening us. They say they have not been trained for nothing in MK (uMkhonto We Sizwe). We are not going to keep quiet.”
Nzimande was one of the ANC leaders said to have voted for Zuma to be recalled during the NEC meeting. Nzimande spoke out against the alleged abuse of state resources to target dissidents. “We thought those things will end with Mbeki but they are continuing even now. Even the (leaked) e-mails are coming back. These e-mails also came out during the Mbeki era.”
After a meeting of the party’s political bureau, the SACP renewed calls for Zuma to step down and warned the country was being auctioned to Dubai and Russian nuclear moguls.
“A parasitic-patronage network linked to the Gupta family has effected a significant level of state capture, with certain cabinet ministers being little more than Gupta functionaries.
“Billions of rand of public money are being siphoned off,” it said.