Zuma is ‘weakest link’, says ANC heavyweight Nqakula

A SENIOR ANC MP and former cabinet minister has proposed that President Jacob Zuma step down immediately after the party’s elective conference in December.

Charles Nqakula, the chairman of parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence, has described Zuma as the “weakest link” in the ANC. Nqakula previously served as Zuma’s political adviser.

Nqakula said Zuma should not be allowed to complete his term once a new party leader was elected.

Nqakula, a former minister of police, makes his appeal to Zuma in his memoir, The People’s War: Reflections of an ANC Cadre, to be released this month.

In the book, the journalistturned-politician discusses the state of the ANC and offers advice on how the party can reclaim its credibility and moral high ground.

Nqakula says Zuma must leave the Union Buildings after the ANC conference to allow the new president to show their leadership abilities ahead of the 2019 elections. He says this will help unite the party.

“The ball is in Zuma’s court. His conscience should tell him what to do and, knowing him to be a revolutionary democrat, I am convinced he will do what is right,” he writes.

In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Nqakula said the new leader of the ANC would not be able to show leadership “if we are still, as the ANC, being forced to respond to issues relating to President Zuma”.

He added: “Because, whatever people say, and there are a lot of people who love President Zuma, he has become the weakest link in the ANC and therefore is going to be an issue for as long as he occupies that position.”

Asked whether this would not make him (Nqakula) unpopular in the ANC, Nqakula said: “There can’t be anyone in the ANC that does not appreciate the fact that President Zuma has become the weakest link.”

Nqakula said he supported neither the Cyril Ramaphosa nor Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma groupings in the ANC succession race.

“One of my difficulties is that I have been in contact in the ANC with very, very good leaders. I come from that period of very good leaders.

“I say in the book that at this point it is an Oliver Reginald Tambo that we need and unfortunately that kind of leader, at this time, is not available among the crop that has thrown their hats in the ring.”

Nqakula has also proposed that the ANC convene a national consultative conference to discuss its current crisis, in the same way it did when it called a similar gathering in Kabwe in Zambia in June 1985.

“At the back of my mind, I was thinking, why is it not possible for us to have another consultative conference, which would be similar to those in 1969 and 1985, because each one of those was looking at the situation as it was unfolding.

“The ANC has to go into a consultative conference to understand the dynamics of the moment and deploy forces that are equal to the task of changing the party so we can make a better life for all,” he said.

It is an Oliver Reginald Tambo we need and that kind of leader is not available