Gwede quashes talk of ousting Zuma

ANC secretary- general Gwede Mantashe speaks at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town on Tuesday. Picture: Brenton Geach

ANC secretary- general Gwede Mantashe speaks at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town on Tuesday. Picture: Brenton Geach

Published Sep 28, 2016

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Cape Town - ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has quashed talk of an early conference for the party to elect new leadership following the humbling local government election results in which its support plunged by eight percentage points.

He said new leadership to be elected at the ANC’s national conference in December next year should be a response to the “trust deficit” that had built up between the party and its base as a result of “own goals”.

Following calls from various structures in the party, starting with the ANC Youth League, for an early conference to deal with its divisions and the implications of the election outcome, Mantashe said all regions had been consulted and “that idea fizzled out”.

“We’ve gone to all the regions of the ANC, 53 of them, and in some we went to even zones and sub-regions - the idea of an early conference fizzled out,” he said.

The proposal might arise at the party’s national executive committee meeting this weekend, Mantashe added, but did not enjoy the support of the regions.

This appears to put paid to calls from a number of branches and ANC luminaries - who blame President Jacob Zuma for the poor showing in the polls - for him to step aside or be recalled before his term as ANC president is due to end in December next year.

The youth league and other Zuma allies, on the other hand, had floated the idea of an early conference in which a new leadership would be agreed on in advance to avoid a bloody contest that could split the party.

Speaking at an investor conference in Cape Town on Tuesday, Mantashe said the elections had sent a strong message to the governing party, but it was not about service delivery. “It was more about the trust deficit that has developed over a period of time between ourselves and the base,” Mantashe said.

“That trust deficit is a function of many things, mistakes we have committed.”

These “own goals” had eventually caught up with the party.

Mantashe said this meant the ANC needed to be strong enough to enjoy the trust of the people again.

Changes in the leadership of the party should “talk to” the trust deficit.

Turning to the concerns of investors about political instability in the course of the ANC’s succession race, Mantashe said the party was confident in what it was doing despite its problems.

He gave the example of the removal of Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister last December, saying the ANC leadership had gone to Zuma within three days and asked him to bring back Pravin Gordhan.

“What is strange is that nobody acknowledges how decisive that intervention was; they say: ‘Why did you commit the mistake in the first place?’,” Mantashe said.

He said the ANC had also put a stop to the “Hollywood approach” of the Hawks in publicly badgering Gordhan with questions in relation to the allegedly unlawful operations of an SA Revenue Service intelligence unit.

If there was a case against Gordhan, he should be issued with a summons so it could be finalised properly. He said there was no discussion about who could potentially replace Gordhan in the event he was removed, and the president and ANC had expressed their confidence in him.

Mantashe said the ANC had decided after getting a “lesson” on the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Bill, which will tighten up scrutiny of financial transactions involving high-profile political figures, that Zuma should sign it.

Political Bureau

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