Ruling party guns for Zuma

MISTAKE: LEADERS PAN EX-PRESIDENT, BUT DIDN’T REIN HIM IN Instead of a disciplinary hearing, they try to choke his campaign.

The ANC has taken on Jacob Zuma, but taking no disciplinary action against its former president is a mistake, an expert said. Zuma is campaigning for the new uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party while still an ANC member – but the ruling party failed to deal with the defiant Zuma, said political analyst Prof Ntsikelelo Breakfast.

The party had opted to deal with him on public platforms, which is not what they should be doing as the first step, he said.

KwaZulu-Natal ANC intensified its public verbal onslaught on Zuma, who is aiming to build his party from the ANC followers he recruited for MK. He has been traversing the length and breadth of the country campaigning for MK, including appointing provincial co-ordinators.

A political scientist at University of KwaZulu-Natal, Zakhele Ndlovu, said the KZN ANC leaders in particular were leading the anti-Zuma onslaught because they knew MK would take votes from them in the province.

ANC provincial secretary William Mtolo is the latest to lambaste Zuma, joining PEC member Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, who took a swipe at Zuma recently.

The provincial leadership had joined the ANC top brass to deal with Zuma, who has vowed he would not vote for the ANC, although he remained a member of the ruling party.

From secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, national chair Gwede Mantashe and national executive committee member Bheki Cele, the ANC’s top echelon took turns to criticise the former president in public.

Even President Cyril Ramaphosa has begun to use strong terms against his political adversary to retaliate against Zuma’s regular criticism of him.

Ndlovu said the ANC was right to attack Zuma because keeping quiet would allow him to steal ANC votes.

“Those who will vote for Zuma are his staunch followers from the ANC in KZN and some from Gauteng – but mostly it will be ‘tender-preneurs’” who benefitted during Zuma’s presidency.

“Ordinary people will not vote for him because he did not deliver during his nine years as president,” Ndlovu said.

Breakfast, director of the Centre for Security, Peace and Conflict Resolution at Nelson Mandela University, said the ANC was taking the battle to Zuma’s doorstep because he posed a threat to the party. But he criticised Luthuli House for failing to discipline Zuma as a member for violating the party’s constitution by campaigning for another party.

“They don’t want to take action and expel him because they don’t want to escalate the conflict or antagonise his followers. They are being evasive, but they must set the record straight on where they stand on his behaviour.

“It is not enough to say he is no longer an ANC member or he has expelled himself, but no correspondence was sent to him to rein him in,” Breakfast said.

Instead of a disciplinary committee hearing against Zuma, the ruling party appeared to be trying to choke his campaign. Zuma was expected to attend a MK gathering in Limpopo that involved a wreath-laying at graves of ANC members, including his former ally Collins Chabane, but the families refused to allow MK members to visit the graves.

In the Eastern Cape, a gathering organised for Cofimvaba this week by one Cleo Hani, said to be a “daughter” of the late SACP general secretary Chris Hani, has been thrown into disarray after the Hani family distanced themselves from the event and disowned Cleo as a daughter.

“All the daughters of Thembisile and Limpho Hani are known by the family and, fortunately, Cleo is not one of them. The woman and some like her have caused this family unbearable pain. We have noted that some mischievous elements have wittingly or unwittingly been part of her circus. However, the family is pursuing other available remedies to lay the matter of Cleo to rest,” the family said.

ANC must set record straight on where they stand

It is, you have to admit, quite entertaining to see the ANC hyenas turning on each other as the election looms. But the campaign to attack former president Jacob Zuma might not be the clever thing to do. Zuma, in his cunning way, has been saying he will die a member of the ANC, yet is clearly behind the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, which is threatening to wrest at least KwaZulu-Natal away from the ruling party.

But, as they have done repeatedly, the ANC has not taken any formal steps against the doyen of state capture – such as bringing him before a disciplinary hearing and charging him.

He clearly has violated ANC rules by his involvement with the MK party and by saying he would not vote for the ANC in the election.

Instead, the party has tried to embark on a character assassination campaign led by some of its leading figures – even though they may not have squeaky clean track records themselves.

Zuma still has a lot of appeal to those who believe the Bell Pottinger-concocted narratives about race and monopoly capital.

Attacking him will only build him up in the eyes of his supporters.

Better, perhaps, to ignore him as a has-been.