Mantashe irks Zikalala

ANC KwaZulu-Natal provincial chairman Sihle Zikalala slammed party secretarygeneral Gwede Mantashe for saying it was in the best interest of the party for President Jacob Zuma to hand over the reins to his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Mantashe revealed his views in a series of tweets.

Zikalala told hundreds of party supporters from the Musa Dladla region at a cadres’ forum yesterday in Empangeni that the position Mantashe held required a leader who did not hold a onesided view.

“The SG says if the ANC does not elect the deputy president there will be a crisis. We cannot have an SG of this mass democratic movement with a one-sided view; the leadership must be open to listen to all members, even to those with different views,” Zikalala said.

Reiterating his support for NEC member and presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Zikalala said the incoming president of the ANC should be someone who has been through the “eye of the needle”.

“You can’t just throw in a name. You have to look at the challenges the country and the party is facing.

“You elect someone who is up to this task.

“We must elect leaders who will fight factionalism, corruption and nepotism.”

He said Dlamini Zuma was the type of leader who would bring unity to the party and implement radical economic transformation.

Dlamini Zuma said there was no clause in the ANC constitution that said that when electing a president, the decision must be explained. She warned that divisions emerge when “we invent things that do not exist and are guided by people, not the constitution, as that leads to factionalism”.