The African National Congress (ANC) wants its deputy president, Kgalema Motlanthe, to be given a Cabinet post, ANC general secretary Gwede Mantashe said on Friday.
Addressing delegates at the sixth KwaZulu-Natal provincial elective conference in Pietermaritzburg, Mantashe said on top of having been recently made a member of Parliament, the party still insisted that Motlanthe be deployed in the Cabinet.
”Our focus, on the run-up to the election, is a smooth transition from the Mbeki administration to the Zuma administration,” he said.
ANC leaders also spoke about the upcoming court case against party president Zuma, labelling it as ”political”.
Mantashe said the Constitutional Court was ”preparing the society for some mischief”.
He said talk shows had discredited Zuma’s leadership as being ”disastrous” for their own motives.
”The ANC is being attacked and … the Constitutional Court wants to deliver a created verdict,” he said.
Themba Mthembu of the South African Communist Party, meanwhile, said Zuma would appear in court for accusations ”trumped up by the Scorpions”.
”JZ is not facing a criminal trial but a political trial.
”How can judges be entrusted with such a sensitive matter?” Mthembu asked.
Mantashe said the ANC’s resolution to disband the Scorpions and incorporate them into the South African Police Service (SAPS) was a ”correct” one.
”The Scorpions have about 600 investigators and they investigate about 325 cases each year … that is 0,6 of a case per investigator per year,” he explained.
”That’s ridiculous”.
The secretary general said cases investigated and completed by the Scorpions cost 50 times more than those investigated by the SAPS.
Mantashe said a new culture and trademark had begun.
”People characterise the Polokwane conference as the beginning of the decay and decline of the ANC.
”In the process, they seem to discredit the leadership of JZ as being disastrous.” — Sapa