Top ANC leaders sorry for criticising Zuma
JOHANNESBURG — Three of the ANC’s top officials — deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, secretary general Gwede Mantashe, and treasurer general Zweli Mkhize — have accepted that they made a “mistake” by publicly criticising President Jacob Zuma following his Cabinet reshuffle.
Zuma has won the day after a special extended ANC National Working Committee meeting rejected calls for him to step down.
“Officials had a candid report on serious issue disagreements, it was a mistake that must not to be committed again,” Mantashe said.
Mantashe was speaking at a media briefing yesterday morning, a day after the NWC met.
Insiders who attended the meeting, which lasted several hours on Tuesday night, said the trio were “lambasted” for speaking out.
“We must find it adult enough to close the door, beat each other up, if you find me with a blue eye, I must develop a narrative that I bumped a pole rather than going public with disagreements,” Mantashe said.
He said the 2007 resolution that premiers and mayors should consult ANC leadership before changing their executive was behind the “shortcoming’’ in managing the reshuffle.
The party members who attended the NWC meeting had also accepted that Zuma’s broken relationship with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan was enough reason for him to fire him.
Mantashe said it was unfortunate that some leaders had used an intelligence report as a reason for Gordhan’s dismissal
“NWC accepted that the irretrievable breakdown of relationship was sufficient explanation between president and members of Cabinet, issue of intelligence report complicated matter,” Mantashe said
The NWC meeting included provincial chairpersons and secretaries, and was said to be dominated by Zuma supporters.
The ANC is facing an unparalleled revolt against a party leader in office. Calls for Zuma to step down have come from within the governing party, including from prominent stalwarts, the SACP and Cosatu, who had campaigned for Zuma’s presidency.
Meanwhile, Zuma has called the leadership of Cosatu for a meeting to discuss, among other things, the union’s call for him to step down.
Cosatu president S’dumo Dlamini told journalists that Zuma had called him on Tuesday asking for a meeting with Cosatu leaders.
He said while he appreciated the importance of the call he had hoped that Zuma would have called on Thursday afternoon to consult with Cosatu before he announced his Cabinet reshuffle.
Cosatu was briefing the media after its central executive committee (CEC) meeting on Monday.
On the agenda was the Cabinet reshuffle, the economic downgrade by Standard & Poor’s, as well as calls for Zuma to resign, Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said.
Ntshalintshali said the federation movement’s CEC meeting resolved to call for Zuma to step down. He cited the Gupta family’s influence in the Presidency, the Constitutional Court judgment which found that Zuma had flouted the Constitution and his subsequent apology as reasons for Zuma to step down.
“The time has arrived for him to step down and allow the country to be led forward by a new collective at the government level. We no longer believe in his leadership abilities . .” Ntshalintshali said.
Cosatu said the latest Cabinet reshuffle reflected the re-emergence of undemocratic practices which were used during the run-up to the Polokwane conference under former president Thabo Mbeki.
“In particular, the use of state institutions and the SABC in factional battles [and] failure to consult ANC members and the alliance partners.”
Cosatu said its hopes that Zuma would usher in a new era of democratic consultation have been shattered.
The federation movement was for the first time not consulted on the Cabinet reshuffle. Ntshalintshali said it noted that some in the ANC’s top six had also been left in the dark.
“While we hear and understand the frustrations of some members of the ANC top six, we hope they have a renewed appreciation of the concept of a meaningful consultation now that they have experienced it themselves,” he said.
He, however, said Cosatu was still committed to the alliance. Cosatu said it was calling for a reconfigured alliance which was at the “centre of driving national democratic revolution”. — Sapa