Durban - President Jacob Zuma needs to be respected as the leader of South Africa, the eThekwini ANC said on Saturday.
“We cannot allow a sitting president to be insulted,” eThekwini ANC chairman Sibongiseni Dhlomo said.
He was speaking at a regional general council held at the Durban University of Technology’s ML Sultan Campus.
Dhlomo condemned the Democratic Alliance's visit to Zuma's private home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.
“It can only be a white madam (DA leader Helen Zille) that calls the residence of a president a compound,” Dhlomo said.
He also criticised the DA and other opposition parties for wanting to pass a vote of no confidence in Zuma.
“In 2009 the people of South Africa gave the ANC power to govern, they (opposition parties) lost the election. We can not allow losers to come back through the back door,” Dhlomo said.
Hundreds of delegates would name their preferred candidates for the party's top six positions ahead of ANC's national elective conference in Mangaung in December.
Earlier eThekwini region secretary Bheki Ntshangase said branches were all behind Zuma for a second term.
Hundreds of ANC delegates wore yellow and green T-shirts bearing the face of Zuma and carrying the words “100% Zuma”.
The region is the African National Congress' biggest, with over 100 branches and more than 90 000 members.
KwaZulu-Natal is also Zuma's home province. - Sapa