Alliance political council discusses Zuma
AFTER months of anticipation‚ the tripartite alliance’s political council has finally met a week after President Jacob Zuma axed SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande from his cabinet without consultation.
The ANC and its alliance partners – the SACP‚ the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) – are said to be deliberating on the way Zuma has handled his administrative duties and the call for him to step down.
“As we all know‚ there have been a number of different issues raised by various alliance partners in the public domain‚ such as when Cosatu called for the president to step down and raising questions as to how the alliance works,” ANC deputy secretarygeneral Jessie Duarte said.
“There are issues being put on the table as we speak [but] I can’t give you comment beyond that.”
She was briefing the media outside the party’s headquarters‚ Luthuli House‚ in Johannesburg yesterday.
“The format that the [alliance] political council takes is that each alliance partner puts forward issues and then we have a discussion after that based on what matters have been raised by each one of us,” she said.
“The meeting is running extremely well and there is a good mood in the meeting‚ there’s a mood of listening and raising issues very honestly.
“We are all committed to ensuring that we walk out of this meeting with the alliance intact and certainly that is the spirit of the meeting.
“This is not a meeting to dismantle the alliance‚ it’s a meeting to look at how we deal with the problems that we have and to strengthen the alliance.”
The meeting takes place after tensions rose between the ANC and Cosatu‚ after Cosatu first publicly called for Zuma to step down in May, when the president was booed‚ heckled and prevented from addressing workers at its May Day rally in Bloemfontein.
The SACP and Cosatu – which have both banned Zuma from addressing their activities – have said they are now in a position to explain why the president needs to vacate his position as head of state.
The alliance council comprises six national officials from the ANC‚ SACP‚ Cosatu and Sanco.
It is understood the meeting will go on until today. – TimesLIVE