The election of fraud convict Tony Yengeni to the African National Congress’s (ANC) powerful national working committee (NWC) is proof that the ruling party has been taken over by criminals, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said on Wednesday.
”The outcome of the ANC’s national executive committee meeting confirms that it has been irreversibly captured by populists, careerists and convicted criminals.
”This is a party willing to sacrifice principle at the altar of power as the election of Tony Yengeni to the NWC amply demonstrates,” she said in a statement.
The outcome of the recent ANC meeting, Zille said, was evidence that Jacob Zuma was now fully in control of the ruling party.
”The Zuma camp’s clean sweep of the NWC and his reaffirmation as the ANC’s presidential candidate means that Zuma has won the battle for the soul of the ANC,” she said.
She made a call to those ANC members who found it difficult to serve under a Zuma leadership to ”jump ship”.
”The DA will now accelerate its mission to build the moderate centre [and], if necessary, we will form strategic alliances with other opposition parties as well as members of the ruling party who cannot countenance the future South Africa faces under Zuma’s ANC,” she said. — Sapa