No second honeymoon for ANC and the alliance soon
Wrangle over timing of messages of support Khoisan want true identity recognised
THE RELATIONSHIP between the ANC and its alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, yesterday seemed set for more gloomy days.
Sihle Zikalala, the chairperson of the party’s disbanded KwaZulu-Natal provincial executive committee, yesterday defended his move to block the party’s alliance partners from delivering messages of support on the first day of the party’s national elective conference.
On Saturday, outgoing ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete called on alliance partners to deliver their messages of support following President Jacob Zuma’s delivery of his last political address as party president.
But this was blocked by Zikalala, who accused Mbete of not following the conference programme by allowing alliance leaders to speak in the open session just after Zuma.
The SACP and Cosatu were now set to deliver their messages of support today.
It is understood that Zuma’s supporters were concerned that the SACP and Cosatu were going to attack the president and influence how delegates voted.
Zuma has endorsed former AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to succeed him.
But Zikalala said both Cosatu and the SACP had nothing significant to contribute except continued criticism of Zuma’s leadership.
“Whatever they will say, it will be what they have been speaking, they have got their views. But we have no worry because there is nothing new that is going to emerge from what they are saying,” Zikalala said.
Cosatu and the SACP had called on Zuma to resign in the run-up to the ANC conference.
Relations within the alliance have been at an all-time low in recent months, with the SACP contesting the Metsimaholo municipal by-election in the Free State on its own last month.
Zikalala were defending Zuma.
“We did not try to protect the president; it was a procedure. The programme that we were given was clear that the messages of support are going to form part of session six. We then said that therefore it can’t be just be taken up without an explanation,” Zikalala said.
He added that Dlamini Zuma’s backers were no longer opposed to alliance leaders speaking in an open session.
In his address, Zuma blasted the SACP and Cosatu, accusing them of colluding with opposition parties and right-wing organisations when they were unhappy with the ANC.
“The tensions that have built up over the years, at times as a result of dissatisfaction with the policy instruments adopted by the ANC and its government, have now come to a head.
“In an unprecedented move, we saw in the past few months our alliance partners marching side by side with rightwing forces who are historical opponents of our democratic revolution, calling on the president of the ANC to step down.
“A decision was also taken by our allies to bar the president of the ANC from attending and/or addressing any of their gatherings,” Zuma said.
Both the SACP and Cosatu have been campaigning for Zuma to step down or be recalled as the country’s president due to his being implicated in corruption and state capture involving the controversial Gupta family, among other scandals.
On Saturday night, SACP first deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila issued a stinging rebuke of Zuma’s speech, calling it pathetic and dishonest.
Mapaila said Zuma had been economical with the truth and had failed to use the opportunity to address core issues affecting both the country and the alliance.
Instead, he said, Zuma was actually at the core of the problems that the country was now facing.
He said the SACP hoped to meet with the new leadership of the ANC to address some of the problems. A GROUP of Khoisan men and women continued to protest outside the Nasrec expo centre on the second day of the ANC’s national elective conference yesterday.
“We have come to bring to the attention of the 54th conference of the ANC that some things went very wrong in the country and can’t go uncontested,” said Anthony Philip, the Khoisan liberation and mass movement national co-ordinator.
People called “coloured” were being paraded under a false identity that had been imposed by the colonialist and the apartheid regimes, and the current government had failed to address the issue, he said.
“A government we all fought for very hard is disheartening, and it is disappointing that in 24 years the ANC has not seen the way open to correct the injustice of the past. So we are here to tell them we want you to correct what is an injustice towards the indigenous first nation of this country,” Philip said.
The group wanted the government to officially recognise their community as the first citizens in South Africa.
They demanded that the government make their language official, and also that the Land Act be scrapped or amended, as it held them back from owning land.
“Let us abolish this title called ‘coloured’ with immediate effect; let us engage these people so that they can go back to who they authentically are,” said Philip.
Joseph Marble, the Khoi- san movement’s national president, said the protest was “making a difference”, as some ANC members had approached them and told them to keep up the fight.
“They said, ‘you are our parents and we are going to fight for you inside’. As I’m standing here, I’m also ANC and I believe in the ANC, just that our leaders forget us,” Marble said, adding that the ANC’s new leadership were expected to rise and recognise the Khoi-San as the first nation.
“Our children in school should be taught the truth about where they came from and must be told that the Khoisan is the first indigenous people,” he said.
The protesters claimed they were harassed by security personnel on Friday.
“One security (officer) shouted at us to go stand elsewhere. We took him on, telling him that he must not confuse our attire with that of animals because we wear skins,” Khoisan activist Christian Martin said.
The protesters have vowed to continue demonstrating until they get the attention of President Jacob Zuma or his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa. – African News Agency/ANA
Plea to abolish the title ‘coloured’