Radebe home to kick off presidential battle

MINISTER in the Office of the Presidency Jeff Radebe is expected to launch his ANC presidential campaign in KwaZuluNatal today.

Radebe was expected to address ANC branches in the uMzinto municipality, on the lower South Coast, about economic transformation.

Sboniso Machi, a leader of the ANC in Ward 8, said the branch had invited Radebe to campaign in the region.

“We invited him because we want him to be the president. As an old leader of the ANC, he can unite the organisation in preparation for the 2019 elections. We don’t know any scandal linked to him.

“After assessing his political and government credentials, we realised he can take the ANC to a level we want it to be,” said Machi.

Radebe would be competing for the presidency with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, former AU commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

The national elective conference takes place in December.

Ramaphosa’s senior lobbyist Senzo Mchunu, a former KZN premier and ANC chairperson, was also in the area this week to launch Ramaphosa’s campaign.

Mchunu told the media that Ramaphosa had significant support in the province, where the ANC leadership was perceived to be backing Dlamini Zuma.

“Don’t let people fool you. He has support in KZN.

“To whoever asks where this support is, I will say I am one of those who support him.

“Let us go to the branches and support him,” Mchunu told a Young Communist League meeting on the South Coast.

However, Machi said a group from the ANC and its tripartite alliance partners would double their effort to mobilise for Radebe in the province.

“He grew up on the South Coast before he left to further his political career in Durban.

“He was always involved in the South Coast, most notably during the violence of early 1990s violence, where he worked hard to bring about peace.”