Former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, despite years of hard work, will now only be remembered as someone who tried to destroy the African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Wednesday.
Shilowa’s resignation earlier on Wednesday followed the suspension of former ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota on Monday, along with Mluleki George, who served as Lekota deputy in the Defence Department.
”We won’t remember Mbhazima as a good leader, but somebody who tried to destroy our movement,” Cosatu Gauteng secretary Siphiwe Mgcina said at a media briefing in Johannesburg.
Describing Shilowa as a ”black sheep”, Mgcina said Cosatu was not surprised by his resignation and the public appearances he made thereafter.
”We had long expected it, since the Polokwane 52nd ANC national conference. This has indeed demonstrated that some among us in the ANC, particularly former ANC members who were also in the state executive, were loyal to an individual instead of the organisation and its constitution.”
Last week Lekota and George said they were concerned that the party had moved away from its founding principles in the manner in which it and its affiliates had expressed support for Zuma while he was being investigated for alleged corruption.
Mgcina said Cosatu and the ANC will do everything in their power to protect the resolutions and the outcomes of Polokwane.
”We will be convening general meetings in all our factories, institutions and communities to ensure that our members understand and indeed defend the national democratic revolution.”
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said it was not surprised by Shilowa’s resignation as he had turned into a power-hungry monster.
”His association with the whisky-drinking elite has blinded him and turned him into a power-hungry monster,” NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said in a statement.
Seshoka described Shilowa as a capitalist activist and the champion of the 1996 anti-revolutionary class project.
However, he called on union members and the working class to ”disassociate themselves from this mob” whose agenda is to pursue political patronage at all costs.
”The working class must be more united than ever before to defeat the rising riot of few members of the bourgeoisie whom Shilowa belongs to,” said Seshoka. ”A coalition of the ill-disciplined … who do refuse to accept democratic decisions will not succeed”.
On television
ANC leader Jacob Zuma was expected to discuss the breakaway movement from the ruling party when he appears on national television on Wednesday evening, the party said.
Zuma cut short house visits along the West Rand to attend a national executive committee meeting, which, he had said earlier in the week, would make a ”radical decision” regarding the future of Lekota and others the party considers dissidents, said ANC spokesperson Brian Sokutu.
Zuma would discuss on television the outcomes of the NEC meeting as well as a ”reflection on the state of the organisation and the challenges facing the organisation”.
Lekota had suggested a national convention to gauge how people felt about developments in the ANC — including the party asking president Thabo Mbeki to resign in September after a court judgement setting aside corruption charges against Zuma.
Earlier on Wednesday, Shilowa, who had resigned in support of Mbeki, set a date for the convention. It is to be held on November 2, and Shilowa said it may lead to a proposal for a new political party.
Wednesday evening’s broadcast is set for 6.30pm on SABC1.
ANC deputy secretary Thandi Modise, speaking in Pretoria, also said on Wednesday that the ANC will not allow indivuals to destroy the movement. ”You cannot allow people to use your structures to destroy you … to rubbish you,” said Modise.
She said the formation of new party would not necessarily be wrong but that the way it had unfolded could have been handled differently.
Another resignation
Meanwhile, Charlotte Lobe, an ANC national executive committee member and a former Free State secretary, resigned from the party on Wednesday.
Lobe also resigned as an ANC member of the Free State legislature.
She stepped down as provincial party secretary in February this year, indicating she did not agree with how the ANC had been handling organisational matters.
On Wednesday, Lobe said she had resigned from the party for the same reasons.
She said she had not resigned from the ANC in February because she was convinced the NEC would address the issues raised in provincial structures.
Lobe said she was attracted to the ANC because of certain norms and standards, but was no longer convinced the party was living up to those standards. She could no longer identify with the way things were being done.
”For myself and my conscience, I would rather join those who speak out and seek alternative ways of protecting the Constitution of South Africa,” she said.