THE call for President Jacob Zuma to step down was an opinion of some of the veterans of the ANC and not the official view of the entire group.
This was according to ANC veteran Wally Serote, who was among the party stalwarts who met the ANC’s national working committee, led by Zuma, yesterday.
Serote was addressing journalists after a meeting lasting more than four hours in Irene, south of Pretoria.
He said there were many issues the veterans agreed on with the ANC leadership, while some issues remained unresolved.
The ANC leadership is expected to respond officially to some of the issues raised by the veterans when they meet again before the end of next month.
This will be in response to a document tabled by the veterans at what was expected to be a tense meeting between the ANC’s leadership and the veterans, who have become among the biggest critics of Zuma.
“We never called for the president to resign as a group, some individuals did, but we never said that as a group.
“We had very robust discussions, there were difficult moments, but we will address them.
"We are guided by the president when he says we should meet again, so that by the end of December we would have addressed the issues,” added Serote.
The meeting brought together Zuma and the veterans who have laid the blame for the decline in the party’s support and instability in government at his door.
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said one of the best things they did as the ANC leadership was to meet the veterans.
Mantashe said as veterans they brought “a wealth of experience to us to be able to deal with problems".