Former president Jacob Zuma has accused the ANC’s leadership of failing to implement conference resolutions and warned about vote buying.
FORMER ANC president Jacob Zuma says the ruling party is run by invisible individuals whose sole aim is to weaken its electoral support so that its founding mission of delivering a better life for the country’s poor majority remains a pipe dream.
Delivering the Oliver Tambo memorial lecture in uMlazi on Sunday, Zuma said the emergence of seven candidates contesting the party’s presidency was indicative of how wrong things had gone, adding that party branches should stop the decline.
Zuma said he would be among the branch members that would ask tough questions at the conference to be held at Nasrec in a few weeks’ time, which he labelled a do-or-die event for the ANC. Among the tough questions, he said President Cyril Ramaphosa should be asked about the Phala Phala farm robbery scandal.
Addressing the crowd, the former president said there were several matters worrying him about the ANC, including:
* The emergence of interim task teams instead of genuine branches that accounted to members;
* A weak administration, reflected by the party’s inability to pay its own staff members;
* The failure to implement the party’s resolutions at the last conference, including the nationalisation of the SA Reserve Bank; and
* The use of money to manipulate ANC processes, including what he described as “theft of conferences”.
He decried the current membership system, saying it was faulty and subject to manipulation by those in power, and should be stopped. In addition, the former president said the ruling party’s policies and politics were controlled by a patronage network of corrupt leaders.
“There has been an obvious usage of money, and those who raise questions over this because of their concern for this movement are not given the space to do so. The ANC has been turned into an article of commerce. This cannot be allowed,” Zuma emphasised.
He also questioned the character of national executive committee (NEC) members given the allegation that Ramaphosa had used money to buy his way to the party’s presidency at Nasrec in 2017.
This appeared to be in reference to a statement made by Ramaphosa before the commission chaired by former deputy judge president Raymond Zondo into state capture.
“It may happen again this year, as Ramaphosa acknowledged using money before the judge,” Zuma added.
Aside from this, Zuma said Ramaphosa should have been challenged following his statement that the ANC was corrupt, but said this had not been done because leaders lacked courage.
Zuma called for delegates attending next month’s elective conference to be resolute against any form of manipulation in order to save the ruling party.
“We do not want people that will be swayed by money, but people that will ask important questions. We have never confronted Ramaphosa over corruption allegations about Phala Phala farm. (The national elective conference) is the platform to use,” Zuma emphasised.
The former president also questioned why the NEC had failed to implement all resolutions, but had focused primarily on the step-aside one.
“Why was the kick-aside resolution given such special treatment when compared to other resolutions and policy decisions? The land issue has not been addressed, and that is why people are living under such conditions,” he lamented.
Zuma said he was not scared to raise issues regarding the ANC, as he had been jailed both before and after democracy.
He called on party members to remember that it was they who held the power. They should not regard elected leaders as gods, but rather as individuals who were given a mandate within a limited time frame.
Zuma was joined by one of his staunch backers, former North West provincial chairperson and premier Supra Mahumapelo.
He is believed to be a part of what was once known as the “Premier League”, a block which was also made up of former Free State chairperson Ace Magashule and former Mpumalanga chairperson David Mabuza.
