ANC will rule again in Bay, Zuma vows
President promises church leaders, supporters party will oust DA-led metro coalition
JUST hours after suffering a historic legal setback, President Jacob Zuma found comfort in the presence of Nelson Mandela Bay church leaders yesterday, vowing that the ANC would take back the metro from the DA-led coalition. But while Zuma put on his signature unperturbed and beaming front in the city, his lawyers had earlier in the day admitted on his behalf that the 2009 decision to have corruption charges against him dropped was irrational.
Zuma – who was in the Bay to meet church leaders who form part of the Interdenominational African Minister’s Association of South Africa’s (Idamasa) Eastern Cape chapter – promised supporters that the ANC in the metro would rise and take it back.
“When we are united we are united, and when we are fighting we are weak, that is why we lost Nelson Mandela Bay.
“This is a lesson to us,” an upbeat Zuma told a packed Nangoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton.
Zuma urged the crowd to prepare itself for the ANC elective conference in December and “show the rest what PE is made of”.
With three months to the elective conference, Zuma’s statement could be seen as a call to ANC branches to support his former wife, Nksosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whom he backs as his successor.
It is, however, unclear how far the campaign will go as ANC branches in the metro appear divided on who to support.
Zuma – who said he knew he would leave Port Elizabeth revived – also lambasted opposition politicians for resorting to the courts in attempts to defeat him.
“They [the opposition] choose to be rude because they want to hide that they don’t have alternative policies.
“They choose to turn to the courts,” Zuma told about 500 supporters, some wearing ANC T-shirts emblazoned with “#NDZ”.
Basking in the support of the church leaders, Zuma sat quietly with eyes closed as the clergymen stretched their hands over his head and prayed for him.
“The ANC has been through a lot of problems but it has never been defeated.
“The ANC rises even when it has fallen,” Zuma said.
“Even when you leave, you realise how cold and lonely it is outside of the ANC. “The ANC is a movement of the people. “That is why no other political party challenges the ANC’s policies.
“Even if you go to the legislature and parliament nationally, no other party can say they have better policies than the ANC.
“I know Idamasa very well – that is why I know that when I am called here, I am called home so I must come.
“I call Port Elizabeth my second home,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Zuma visited Idamasa House in Gratton Street, where a closed meeting was held.
The house is set to be named after for- mer ANC president Oliver Tambo, who is said to have donated it to Idamasa while he was in Zambia.
“[Church leaders] showed their pain at watching Nelson Mandela Bay being run by a [DA-led coalition],” Zuma said.
“They told me that they cannot sleep and have taken some decisions.
“What has happened here today has moved me.
“I was especially moved when the reverend sang an Oliver Tambo song – I realised that this was serious,” he said, as people nodded their heads in agreement.
“The bible says when leaders go astray pray for them, it doesn’t say discard them and hate them – that is the bible I know.
“And when I heard this I was convinced that I will leave Port Elizabeth revived.”
Also in attendance and seated next to Zuma were provincial executive committee member Andile Lungisa and former Bay mayor Ben Fihla, among others.