Zuma wants ANC members to spy on each other

President Jacob Zuma wants to create a spy unit within the party to check what members do outside branch activities.

President Jacob Zuma wants to create a spy unit within the party to check what members do outside branch activities.

Published Jan 24, 2017

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Johannesburg - To bolster the ANC’s might in society, President Jacob Zuma wants to create a spy unit within the party to gather intelligence on what members do outside branch activities.

The ANC leader, who served as the party’s head of intelligence in exile, called on his comrades to take the lead in building strong community structures.

They also needed to ensure that the former liberation movement was well represented in influential forums such as school governing bodies and street committees.

Zuma said such drastic steps would help to increase the ANC’s profile across all the communities it was meant to serve.

“If there’s a death in your village, be the first to go there (to the bereaved family) and sympathise. Be active, discuss how the funeral is going to be,” said Zuma.

The president was speaking at the ANC’s 105th birthday celebrations at Burgersfort in Limpopo at the weekend.

ANC provincial chairperson and Premier Stan Mathabatha, Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula and MP Pule Mabe, among others, attended the event.

Zuma is expected to hand over power to a new leadership when he steps down as ANC president in December. 

However, his term as president of Africa’s most industrialised economy expires only in 2019.

At the ANC event at the weekend, Zuma urged party members and supporters to be visible in their communities and help build strong structures in order to help influence the party’s and society’s direction.

“I’m going to have time after two years. I’m going to be part of the organising committee voluntarily, and political education."

"I’m telling you, I’m going to create a system where we check each member, what they do outside the branch activities,” said Zuma.

“Every member (belonging to a) branch and structure must focus on building the ANC by participating in this structure that I’m talking about,” he emphasised."

Zuma has previously said he won’t rest when he stepped down from his leadership positions and has declared that he wanted to be mayor of Nkandla when he leaves the Union Buildings.

“When I say I want to contest to be a councillor in my ward when I take my pension, people laugh. But it is not personal; it is organisational. I was just telling someone my ambition is to be mayor of Nkandla,” Zuma said.

@luyolomkentane

The Star

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