Gwede slams vets who snubbed policy summit

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said yesterday it was wrong for stalwarts to boycott the party’s policy conference that took place in Soweto earlier this year.

“It was a mistake, comrades. I want to say it here. You can hang me or crucify me but it was a mistake, especially of those veterans and stalwarts who said ‘there is a crisis (so) we are not going to attend; it’s your crisis’,” Mantashe told a packed hall at the inaugural ANC Veterans’ League conference held at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.

Mantashe, who spoke after it was announced that President Jacob Zuma would not be attending due to presidential commitments outside the country, said if need be, veterans had to find solutions to the challenges facing the ruling party.

Elders of the ANC raised their concerns over the dissent facing the party in recent months. Alongside the Alliance members, they have called on Zuma to step down so that the ANC could return to its former core values which they say have been eroded under his leadership.

But Mantashe warned that those who had fought for lib- eration in the past could not afford turn their backs on the ANC, especially now.

“Veterans cannot behave as a counterforce. Veterans must lead in efforts of finding solutions. If not, every action is followed by a reaction. Once the veterans behave as a counter force, than everybody holds back,” added Mantashe.

He also called on the leadership to emulate former ANC president Oliver Tambo and said comrades had to rein in on chaos within the party.

The first day of the threeday conference also kicked off amid the judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal into the so- called spy tape cases against Zuma.

Despite Zuma’s appeal, the SCA upheld a High Court ruling which said the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to drop the 783 corruption charges against Zuma was irrational. Speaking on the sidelines, Mantashe said the ANC was yet to make a decision on the matter. “The NPA will decide to charge the president… It has not decided yet. Let’s allow that process to take its course and then the ANC will decide thereafter,” he said.

Mantashe said Zuma’s bid to appeal the High Court ruling was his constitutional right.