Sing if you want to, says president Department won’t give reasons for D-G’S suspension
THE ANC has not stopped its members from singing songs about its leaders, says President Jacob Zuma, who is also the party’s leader.
“The ANC said ‘let us not discuss leadership’. It’s different from singing about leaders,” Zuma told reporters yesterday at Gallagher Estate, where the ANC is holding its national policy conference over four days.
Zuma was reacting to a question about how he felt when delegates at the event sang in support of him, when the party had warned members not to discuss succession.
Zuma said that the presi- dent was the face of the party.
“When you are singing about leaders, you are not campaigning. It is not an issue about elections,” he said.
Zuma said that the ANC had sung about figures such as former ANC presidents Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Oliver Tambo, sometimes even before they became party leader.
“We sing about officials with a track record,” he said.
The ANC will elect new leaders at its Mangaung conference in December. The party’s top officials have warned its members not to nominate their preferred leaders before Octo- ber, or discuss succession before then.
ANC deputy secretarygeneral Thandi Modise said that members had been asked not to sing derogatory songs about leaders.
“We sing about different eras and struggles,” she told reporters.
Modise said that was why she found the action taken by AfriForum against former ANC Youth League president Julius Malema for singing “dubul’ ibhunu” (shoot the boer) last year amusing.
“The ANC, in the real African way, will continue to sing,” she said. – Sapa THE Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries would not be drawn yesterday on the reasons for the suspension of its director-general, Langa Zita, earlier this week, saying only that he had been suspended as a “precautionary measure pending an investigation”.
“We can’t give reasons at the moment, because this would compromise the investigation,” Palesa Mokomele, media liaison officer for the department, said yesterday.
The department issued a terse press release yesterday morning, after media reports that Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Tina Joemat-Pettersson had suspended Zita.
The press release said Zita’s suspension was an “administrative matter”, and that Sipho Ntombela had been appointed as acting director-general.
Wouter Wessels, acting head in the office of Deputy Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Pieter Mulder, said his office first heard of the suspension when it received the press statement.
Zita is the second senior official to be suspended from the beleaguered department in two months: the acting deputy director for the fisheries branch of the department, Sue Middleton, was suspended on May 4 for authorising a last- minute deal to help the navy manage the government’s premier fisheries research vessel.
Zita’s suspension comes in the wake of the ongoing controversy over the R800 million tender to police SA’s marine resources.
The DA has asked the Public Protector to investigate the award of the tender – which was later withdrawn – to a black empowerment company, Sekunjalo Marine Services.
In a statement announcing Zita’s appointment in September 2010, Joemat-Pettersson said he “brings a very impressive CV and pedigree” and “comes with a rich politi- cal background”.
“We are confident that he will elevate our work to the world-class levels required for us to meet our priorities,” she said at the time.
Last month, The New Age newspaper reported that a dispute over the tender had led to Joemat-Pettersson approaching President Jacob Zuma to sack Zita, with whom her relationship had reportedly broken down “beyond repair”.
Responding to questions, Mokomele said she could not comment on speculation that relations between Zita and Joemat-Pettersson had become strained.