Cele warns the ANC

Cele warns on arrogance and foolish pride

ANC heavyweight Bheki Cele said that the ruling party did not have the endorsement of Jesus Christ‚ and that foolish pride in the runup to the 2019 general elections would result in the ANC’s downfall.

Cele‚ addressing a crowd of hundreds at a South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) event in Esikhawini on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast yesterday, said that the party was not ordained by God and would need nothing short of divine intervention to cling to power.

“We [the ANC] own nobody… we are not ordained by anybody to rule until Jesus comes back‚” he said.

President Jacob Zuma has previously said that the ANC would rule until Jesus’s second coming – a narrative which Cele venomously undercut at the podium. “We will only continue to rule if we are humble‚” he said.

“The reason the ANC is losing votes is because the people say we have social distance‚ arrogance, that we are corrupt, and because of factionalism.”

He used the platform to take aim at Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma‚ her former husband’s tainted relationship with the Gupta family and factionalism eroding the support base of the ANC.

“We are going to elect a president for the ANC; we have already elected a president for the [ANC] women’s league‚” he said to applause from the crowd. The former police commissioner also levelled his sights at the Gupta family and said that no one had been held accountable for the Waterkloof Air Force Base debacle.

In 2013, a private jet chartered by the Gupta family and filled with guests attending a lavish wedding landed at the base.

“I was once police commissioner and I’ve never landed on a military base before‚ but people who just came to get married get to land at our bases. They land there‚ they get escorted by blue lights [vehicles] to their wedding‚” he said.

Cele made veiled reference to his support of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa‚ who is contesting in the race for party leadership against Dlamini-Zuma.

“I don’t support anyone because I haven’t nominated anyone yet,” he said.

“I support the ANC in following the tradition of electing deputy presidents [who later become president].”

/ THULI DLAMINI Bheki Cele told the crowd at Sanco’s Khuluma Mhlali meeting in Esikhawini, KZN, yesterday that he supports the ANC tradition of electing deputy presidents to become president.