Tshwarelo Hunter Mogakane
Pretoria - ANC national executive committee (NEC) member, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s presidential campaign has received the backing of the Nkandla Village branch in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ward 14, Msholozi branch, nominated the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister last week, saying she was the best candidate to contest the incumbent ANC president, Cyril Ramaphosa.
The branch nominated former president Jacob Zuma to become the national chairperson of the governing party.
“This is president Jacob Zuma’s branch and our nomination is a show of respect to our mother, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. We have been believing in Mama Nkosazana since 2017 at Nasrec. She was unable to win because there were vote-buying activities that took place.
“We believe that this time around no amount of money will give anyone a seat. The will of the branches will prevail because people have seen for themselves what kind of leadership we have been subjected to over the past five years. Mama Nkosazana is fit to lead and she will emerge,” said Nkandla branch leader, Doctor Bhengu.
Bhengu added that the ANC would be in safe hands under the chairmanship of the former president.
“You don’t need divining powers to see that the country was far better under Msholozi’s leadership. If the party that governs doesn’t have experienced leaders like uBaba, you can kiss this beautiful land goodbye. Let him come back and help uMama to lead the liberation movement,” Bhengu said.
Zuma has publicly endorsed Dlamini Zuma for ANC president while availing himself for any position in the top six.
His supporter, Senzo Nkabinde, sent a letter to KZN ANC chairperson Sboniso Duma, asking the provincial executive committee (PEC) to change its nomination of Dr Zweli Mkhize.
Nkabinde said it was unfair of the PEC to make pronouncements before all the branch general meetings in the province had been held.
“The apparent socio-political trajectory traversed by the ANC in KZN province doesn’t inspire our trust and confidence in the KZN PEC.
“It is unbearable and disheartening to witness the ANC in KZN being so disunited and divisive under the ought-to-be the most powerful collective historically youngest ANC provincial executive committee leadership denting its image.
“Kindly appreciate that the KZN ANC PEC means a lot to us ANC members, due to the fact that the founding ANC president was from KZN.
“Kindly unite KZN geopolitically, by finding strategic means and ways to let all the wishes of the branches in KZN to be seen to be respected and given political autonomy to choose their preferred ANC top six leaders.”
Last month, Dlamini Zuma sparked a political debate after she publicly criticised the party’s step aside rule. Some of her 2017 campaign supporters quickly responded by saying her comment lacked credibility because she never said a thing about the step aside rule for five years, and was part of the ANC national working committee (NWC) which implemented it.
Dlamini Zuma said the rule was the only resolution implemented from many others taken at the Nasrec conference, where she narrowly lost to Ramaphosa.
She said there were comrades who were arrested and charged, only to be investigated afterwards.
Dlamini Zuma’s remarks were followed by a petition from senior ANC members who asked branches to call for the scrapping of the rule at the ANC’s 55 national conference in December.
Members of the party, including national executive committee member, Dakota Legoete, shared copies of the “Motion of the Step-Aside Rule” via WhatsApp, urging the branches to sign.
The motion vehemently contended that the implementation of the rule had divided the ANC and threatened unity within the party, which is known for its renewal rhetoric.
Pretoria News