The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has unleashed provincial heavyweights in a bid to stymie former president Jacob Zuma’s renegade MK Party and hold on to the province in this year’s elections.
The ANC’s response follows a period of frantic campaigning by Zuma who, though still technically an ANC member, has savaged the party and President Cyril Ramaphosa at well-attended events around the country.
A once close ally, police minister Bheki Cele, was one of the first former provincial leaders sent out to lobby against the MK Party. He addressed a meeting of activists in eThekwini this week, lacing his speech with stinging remarks directed at the former president.
Former KwaZulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu, now water & sanitation minister, addressed ANC activists in Durban on Saturday, while former health minister and former provincial premier Zweli Mkhize spoke at an event in Ndwedwe.
On Sunday former ANC provincial chairs S’bu Ndebele and Sihle Zikalala are scheduled to address AN Cactvists in Ndwedwe.
A senior ANC leader who requested anonymity said: “Comrade JZ cannot denounce, malign and [campaign against] the ANC while we continue to keep quiet. We need the comrades who worked with him, who knew him well, to come out and speak the truth about who he is — a parasitic misleader — before he leads people astray.”
Cele seemed particularly enraged by Zuma’s insinuations that he has compromising information about his comrades that he will 'one day reveal'. He challenged Zuma to speak once and for all
Cele came out guns blazing against his former boss, accusing him of being a selfish leader who wanted to be supported when he was president but refused to accept that the ANC had a new leader.
“ANC members must not be misled by this MK. Our mission is to make the lives of South Africans better — allow him to go alone. He might mislead some but the rest of us must explain that this ANC does not belong to an individual — nobody is a leader by right in the ANC, there is nobody who owns this organisation, it is owned by millions of ANC members,” he said.
“Calm down, the ANC was left by intellectual giants like [Robert] Sobukwe, not intellectual dwarfs. It continued to thrive.”
Zuma’s evident contempt for Ramaphosa is not in any way legitimate and demonstrates that he believes that nobody but him could lead the ANC, Cele said.
“It can’t be that you are in the top six all your life, since 1991, [then] when it’s time to give other people a chance to lead, all of a sudden the ANC is an enemy.
“He says he was fired as president — he also fired [former president Thabo] Mbeki. Now when it’s his turn he doesn’t want it. The president he swears at every day gave him his package, what more does he want?” Cele asked.
Mchunu warned ANC Youth League members in Durban “not to be fooled” by Zuma and his MK Party.
“When you divide the ANC, yet you call yourself a member of the ANC ... you are going against the founding principles of the ANC. You cannot one day say there is something called the ANC of Ramaphosa. We are told he joined the ANC at age 16, yet all these years he has never been able to grasp the principles on which the ANC was founded.”
He said Zuma’s actions were motivated by hatred for Ramaphosa.
“I am pleading with you as young people, do not destroy yourself by hating a fellow member of the ANC, hatred is not acceptable in the ANC, that is not part of the ANC DNA.”
The ANC campaign against the MK Party reflects the fear that it is likely to reduce the ANC majority, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.
The emergence of the party has changed the ANC campaign strategy in the province. Local leaders initially frowned on Luthuli House’s suggestion that they rope in senior former leaders in the province. Party insiders say secretary Bheki Mtolo and chair Siboniso Duma has now reached out to former leaders to help them put out fires started by the MK Party.
Cele said Zuma cannot promise to return to the Union Buldings to “fix things”. The IEC electoral commission has reportedly stated that Zuma is not eligible for the presidency.
“He had the supreme power of the presidency. All of a sudden he wants to fix things, if he wanted to fix things he should have done that while he was president, not to come here now and talk about fixing things,” he said.
Cele seemed particularly enraged by Zuma’s insinuations that he has compromising information about his comrades that he will “one day reveal”. He challenged Zuma to speak once and for all.
“My commander in exile was Jacob Zuma. When he says he knows things he must come out and say them so that we can also speak of his business. He has been threatening us, he must come speak, we will also speak.”
Cele admitted to having been repeatedly warned by senior ANC leaders against blindly supporting Zuma.
“Even during his rape trial we told him we are supporting the ANC, not him — because he is a custodian of that office, we are standing with that ... don’t misinterpret us.”
“[Late ANC leader] Dumisani Makhaye saw through him and I remember that Harry Gwala used to call Zuma impunga yehlathi [an incorrigible person] — if they were here today they would be saying I told you so,” he said.
“There is a problem of Eugene de Kock, who was killing comrades. Today we don’t know where he is — he was given R40,000 by Zuma, Cele said, referring to an alleged monthly payment Zuma made to apartheid-era hit squad leader Eugene de Kock.
Known as Prime Evil, de Kock was jailed for torturing and executing anti-apartheid activists.
The ANC government under Zuma paroled the apartheid state assassin, reportedly spending R200,000 a month in taxpayers’ money for his upkeep. It recently emerged that the state has no knowledge of his whereabouts.
Cele said he was worried Zuma’s stand against the ANC could provoke violence.
He warned ANC members “never to repeat the mistake of protecting an individual at the expense of the ANC as the ANC is the inheritance of the next generations. It cannot die with us”.
