NC national executive committee (NEC) members Zweli Mkhize and Bathabile Dlamini have made it into the list of party leaders destined for parliament, despite being implicated in corruption.
Presidential hopeful Zweli Mkhize’s campaign appears to have been given a boost by what could be seen as tacit endorsement by Gauteng heavyweights Nomvula Mokonyane and Mzwandile Masina.
Mkhize was flanked by the two leaders when he held a memorial lecture to honour struggle veteran Bertha Gxowa in Katlehong on Wednesday afternoon. Another leader who attended the event was Phumulo Masualle, who is vying for the position of party secretary general.
This was the third event Mkhize has held in the province since he launched his campaign to become the ANC president
Masina and Mokonyane have been nominated for the treasurer general and deputy secretary general positions respectively.
Mokonyane received an early endorsement from the KwaZulu-Natal provincial leadership while Masina has also been touted as the preferred choice by some in the coastal province.
During the lecture, the three decried the national executive committee’s (NEC) performance during its term.
Mkhize downplayed the appearance of the trio together, saying the new electoral guidelines ensured that there were no slates. He said delegates would get an opportunity to decide on their own leadership formation in the next term.
“Each one is a leader in their own right, we have not really gone as a package. We are leaders as individuals and therefore we will allow branches to decide how they want to formulate that package. So the package is based on who they think must be president or deputy etc etc and so at the end of it, it’s a decision of the branches.”
During his speech, Mkhize criticised the decisions of the Ramaphosa-led government, including its interpretation of the July unrest.
He said he had raised concerns about the government classifying the looting and riots as a failed insurrection, saying this showed a leadership out of touch with its communities.
The ANC presidential nominee took several jabs at Ramaphosa during his speech, claiming that, unlike the president, he lived in “the community with the people” and understood their plight.
“You cannot have a leadership that is divorced from the society that elected them, that is supposed to serve them,” he said.
He also criticised this week’s constitutional court judgment ordering the parole of Chris Hani’s killer, Janusz Walus, and the supreme court judgment that found that the granting of medical parole for former president Jacob Zuma was unlawful. Both judgments were handed down on Monday.
“It becomes a problem when decisions are taken and you don’t take into account how sore our spirits are still to this day about Chris Hani. People don’t understand the psyche of South Africans that to us it was the worst travesty of justice,” he said.
He added that it was unusual for an 80-year-old man to be ordered back to jail.
Mkhize said he raised this when Zuma was first ordered to prison, cautioning the ANC that its leaders must get into the community to contain the negative fallout of the constitutional court judgement, which sentenced Zuma to 15 months in prison for contempt of court.
“You can’t say this [is] insurrection. Once you call this an insurrection you are copping out. There is a big difference. Angry and hungry people may break the law but people who are involved in an insurrection are those with an agenda to overturn the government violently. The solutions are not the same,” he said, adding that when hunger drives an unrest, the government must bring development to the people.
He said that in the case of an insurrection, “you must shoot the people”.
He also criticised the Ramaphosa faction for being central to the divisions in the NEC.
Mokonyane was also critical of the government, saying that ANC’s biggest opposition was Eskom.
She said the people of Ekurhuleni were demotivated in the last local government elections.
“We must look at what we resolved in the last conference about what we said about Eskom and what we said about unemployment. We have coal, we have mines that go deep. Why do we have to depend on the sun that we can’t control? Why should we depend on the wind which we can’t control?”
Mokonyane said the ANC talked about unity and renewal while some factions were conspiring to expel certain members.
The Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture has recommended that Mokonyane be investigated and prosecuted for corruption, given the evidence that she accepted bribes from Bosasa.
Masina is facing disciplinary action for having defied the Gauteng provincial executive by deciding against voting for an Economic Freedom Fighter candidate in council.
Mkhize is facing a suspension over the Digital Vibes scandal after the ANC’s integrity commission recommended it. Mkhize has appealed the recommendation.
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