Zuma lambasts stalwarts who ‘think they have power’

President Jacob Zuma has lashed out against the ANC’s veterans who have chosen to boycott the first two days of the party’s national policy conference, which began in Johannesburg yesterday.

Zuma didn’t mince his words nor did he end his speech before airing his views on the stalwarts’ decision to boycott the event due to their calls for leadership change and a national consultative conference.

Towards the end of his address Zuma hit back at the veterans, saying “they think they have power”.

He further offered a lengthy explanation on the stalwarts.

“The reason why we have seven days is because some comrades who call themselves stalwarts, veterans, went around the country organising other comrades because they had some views.

“And they later reported to headquarters that they had organised comrades of about 101, and these comrades have concerns that they want to discuss.

“They said they want a consultative conference … they took a decision on their own, outside the ANC structures, and presented. At first we thought it was very funny that so many comrades would sign a petition in the manner in which they did,” he said.

Zuma said they wrote letters individually to the comrades in question, to understand exactly what their concerns were.

“But only one, two or three wrote back and others were disassociating themselves from a letter that was sent to us, saying they did not even know why their names were there …

“In fact one of them who is sick and is in hospital now, sent me a message yesterday saying he wants me to come to the hospital so that he can clarify that he is not party to that.

“We had a discussion in an attempt to meet their request as much as this was really done funnily by people who professed to know the ANC. We said fine, maybe the comrades have reasons and we ended up with a compromised decision, that we will add two days to the days that we normally have for the policy conference so that the first two days they can participate and we can discuss their concerns and the concerns of all of us,” Zuma said.

“They then said no, this is not what they want. It is like they are a real organisation operating, I’m sure they must have an office, I don’t know but they are very organised because they organise the media and in fact they communicate with us through the media in the majority of cases.”