Johannesburg - Nelson Mandela Bay’s former mayor and ANC boss Nceba Faku has lashed out at President Jacob Zuma, saying he has not shown any leadership and that as a result South Africa was in a national crisis.
And he has called on the ANC's entire national executive committee (NEC) to go.
However, Eastern Cape Premier and provincial ANC chairperson Phumulo Masualle has defended Zuma, saying he should finish his term as removing him would not solve the challenges facing the former liberation movement.
The Nelson Mandela Bay metro, which comprises the port city of Port Elizabeth, the industrial town of Uitenhage and Despatch, fell under a DA-led coalition after the municipal elections in August.
Faku was elected as the first black mayor of Port Elizabeth in 1995. He also served for many years as the ANC regional chairperson until last year, when the regional structure was disbanded by Zuma,following years of factional battles. It was replaced by a regional task team, which clearly couldn’t stop the takeover by opposition parties at the polls, where the ANC’s national support fell from 62 to 54 percent.
In numerous Facebook posts, Faku directed his anger at Zuma and the NEC, but also criticised factions gearing for positions ahead of the ANC elective conference in December next year.
On August 11, he posted: “We are in a national crisis! We may deny it, but it’s real. Not only is the ANC, but also the country is melting through our own fingers.”
The situation facing the country was “beyond branches of the ANC” and it needed all the allies of the ruling party to come together.
In a post on November 4 he said: “I hope the ANC realises that it is not just the president or those mentioned in the report. There should be collective responsibility, and the current leaders cannot be returned to leadership positions because they have not exhibited any leadership. One must make a persuasive and compelling argument why any of the NEC members should be returned to the NEC. We require leaders with a better set of values, understanding of maintaining a popular movement and the technocratic requirements of a modern democracy which is not a developed country or economy.”
On November 6, Faku called on comrades to motivate for the type of “national leadership that the country now needs and the kind of a South Africa that the ANC now needs to take us to”.
“We need individuals (with) a strong sense of building this and representing this province. We need a collective that would demonstrate unity of purpose by consciously and consistently advocating growth and development agenda for our province,” he wrote.
He said the Eastern Cape was “underperforming and punching far below its weight” in the national discourse.
Faku said the ANC needed NEC members who would not be afraid to implement the Freedom Charter and the policy document Through the Eye of the Needle, and ensure “ANC constitution discipline”.
ANC regional spokesperson Gift Ngqondi could not be reached for comment.