African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma told members of the party’s Western Cape general council on Sunday that they had failed in the province
”Comrades in the Western Cape have failed over the period, and no-one can argue that you have not,” he told the council members, who had gathered from branches across the province to chart the way forward following their defeat at the polls in April.
Zuma said the failure was the reason the party had appointed a team ”in a very deliberate manner” to manage the province.
”We did not want to have people [on the team] who were friends of others. We wanted a team that must work. This time we want to take the Western Cape out of difficulty.”
Turmoil within the party in the Western Cape played a major role in the ANC losing the province in the general election earlier this year.
In 2006, the ANC also lost control of Cape Town when Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille became mayor.
Zuma pinned the blame for the party’s poor performance on what he called ”twin” problems.
”We have a problem … this organisation is faced with a new enemy … and this enemy is composed of twins. Twins that are destroying the organisation.
”This enemy, the one twin — authority, positions. The [other] twin is money. These two walk together; they are well armed; they are destroying the African National Congress,” Zuma warned.
The two were related because ”some are looking for a position to put their friends [in power] so that they have access to resources,” he said to cheers and whistles of approval.
Zuma said there were people in the organisation ”who have surrendered themselves to the comrades of other comrades … who work 24 hours for certain comrades, not for the ANC.
”I think you have a problem which you must deal with … I hope I’m wrong,” Zuma said.
Council members at this point started cheering and shouting ”You’re right!”.
ANC national executive member and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana is currently interim head of the party in the Western Cape. – Sapa