African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota is being one-sided in calling for a clampdown on T-shirts showing support for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma while defending T-shirts bearing President Thabo Mbeki’s image, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday.
The trade-union federation is also worried that the interests of individuals are being placed ahead of those of the party, with their pictures bigger than the ANC logo on the T-shirts.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the ”100% JZ” or ”Jacob Zuma, Zulu Boy” T-shirts, which Lekota recently said created tribalism and were divisive, were produced in the context of the start of Zuma’s trials two years ago, when he believed he was the victim of a politically inspired campaign to discredit him.
”They were also a response to the emails allegedly sent by Saki Macozoma and others, discrediting Jacob Zuma by using derogatory terms such as ‘stupid Zulu boy’,” said Craven.
Craven said there is still doubt over whether the emails ever really existed, but the ”whole email saga” was symptomatic of the serious factional divisions that now exist within the ANC.
”The T-shirts do raise important questions about the use of tribalism, which even if it was done in response to provocative emails, could ignite dangerous tribalist sentiments that we know exist, and play into the hands of Jacob Zuma’s opponents who want to portray him as essentially tribalist,” Craven said.
”The big danger is that if we allow this tendency to take root, it will implant in the minds of the masses the idea that the leaders are more important than the organisation.
”It will create a dangerous culture of fear and sycophancy towards leaders, discourage people from objecting even when leaders make mistakes, strengthen leaders’ factional hegemony, weaken organisational coherence and make rational discussion of issues more difficult,” Craven said.
Leaders would begin to think they were more important than the organisation.
”Should we not be promoting the ANC logo on T-shirts, rather than pictures of Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma or Tokyo Sexwale? Should we not be returning to the traditions of the ANC, which always put the interests of the organisation and the masses before those of any individual leader?” he asked. — Sapa