Sisulu will go where the masses want, says adviser

AS MINISTER Lindiwe Sisulu mourns the loss of her nephew, ANC branches in the country are campaigning for her to become the next president of the country.

Patrice Mangena, the chairperson of the AB Xuma branch in ward 9, Western Cape, said that his branch, whose majority of members are women, is openly campaigning for Sisulu and endorses her presidency.

According to Sisulu’s political adviser, Mphumzi Mdekazi, the minister will go where the ANC appoints her. Mdekazi was responding to questions from the Daily News yesterday on whether Sisulu was considering running for the ANC presidency at the 2022 elective conference of the ruling party.

“She is still on compassionate leave after the loss of her nephew. She is still grieving. Her focus is on the upcoming local government elections. She was deployed to Kwazulu-natal.

“It is the masses and the rank and file within the ANC that select and elect the person they see as their leader. As a person who has worked all her life to uphold the name, principles, and resolutions of the organisation, Minister Sisulu has never been disappointed when given a political responsibility.

“This is evident in how she handled matters when she was asked to implement the resolution of the ANC on Israel. She executed that, and she paid a huge political price for it. That’s the life of a revolutionary. Many within the ANC are aware that the minister is a revolutionary to the core,” Mdekazi explained.

He added that revolutionaries were never scared of tasks ahead of them. Every area was a site of struggle.

Asked whether she was planning to work with Duduzane Zuma after they were seen together in Kwazulu-natal, Mdekazi said that Sisulu believed that the future belonged to young people.

The KZN provincial Women’s League spokesperson, Nonhlanhla Gabela, told the Daily News that they were going to be guided by the popular view of the majority of women after consultations.

“We will not make another mistake of being used by men to divide women. We will sit at structures and decide on the position we will take. We want to work with only women who are progressive and agree to a female president.

“We need to get provinces who will work with us and make a decision to support a woman leader based on popular support. If the majority of the women want Sisulu, then we will all have to rally behind her,” Gabela said.