ANC NEC member Bhekokwakhe Cele has urged party members to elect a ‘leader,’ not a ‘ruler’ at the December national conference if they wish to remain as a ruling party.
Addressing the South African National Civic Organisation’s (SANCO) Khuluma Mhlali Programme held at Umfolozi TVET College in eSikhaleni at the weekend,
Cele denied he was campaigning for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to succeed President Zuma.
He warned party members against complacency, saying the ANC was not ordained to lead until the return of Jesus Christ.
‘The truth of the matter is that all is not well in the ANC. Corruption is what is destroying us.
‘Radical economic transformation won’t happen in a corrupt environment. When we speak out against this, people say we are bitter because we were fired. I’m not bitter. We also worked hard for the ANC and we will not be threatened.
‘We must do the right things as leaders, otherwise the people will punish us,’ he said.
He insisted he was not supporting Ramaphosa, but rather following an ANC tradition that a deputy must succeed the President of the ANC.
‘This is the very same tradition we supported in Polokwane, to have then Deputy President Zuma succeed President Mbeki, and why should there be a problem this time around,?’ he asked.
The firebrand Cele also lashed out at what he called a culture of ‘anointing’.
‘I have noted that there are those who believe that the ANC is their family project, where your family member is ordained to be the next leader.
‘This is not royalty. There are no kings and queens here. In the ANC we are all equal and no one has a right to fire anyone.
‘Only a king can anoint his successor, not you because you are a leader,’ he said, referring to President Zuma who has endorsed Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s candidature.
He said it was imperative for the ANC to put up a united front as the December conference nears.
‘We need to foster unity. As we speak there is no unity in the movement of Oliver Tambo and we can’t afford to have another splinter group. I don’t care who says what, but this province is heavily divided.
‘This was evident during the Pietermaritzburg High Court case where we saw two ANC groups squaring up against each other. We even saw the leadership of the time addressing only one group, not the other.
Cele said it was not impossible for the ANC to lose elections.
‘After we lost in the local government elections in Nelson Mandela Bay, we conducted a research to determine why we lost. People told us that we had become more aloof and that arrogance, corruption and factionalism had become our new trademark,’ he said.
Sharing the podium with Cele was SANCO Provincial Executive Committee member Bheki Ntuli and former KZN MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu, now KZN Provincial Coordinator for CR17.
Mabuyakhulu said it was ‘foreign in the ANC’ to have a provincial conference declared illegitimate.
‘We accept the Pietermaritzburg High Court judgement, but we are not jubilant. We feel this must serve as a lesson that leaders must listen and not side with the wrong.
‘Our movement must cleanse itself for us to win the 2019 elections.
‘We can’t win when the majority of South Africans believe we are a corrupt movement. Our image has been dented in the eyes of international community,’ he said.
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