Durban - African National Congress KwaZulu-Natal chairman Sihle Zikalala on Sunday lashed out at “forces who share a common short goal which is to remove President Jacob Zuma and ANC”.
“We want to state without any hesitation that, today in our country there is a convergence of forces who share a common short goal which is to remove President Jacob Zuma and ANC, but do not share a common objective on what happens in the aftermath,” he said in his closing speech at the ANC’s two-day provincial general council (PGC) meeting at the University of Zululand.
“That’s what makes these forces to be even more dangerous, illogical, and unreliable. Placing any trust on them is very serious risk for future of the people and that of generations to come. Therefore, being a member and a cadre of the movement requires people who are constantly engaged in a study of the revolution, factors that influence it, and the role of revolutionaries to shape it in the best interests of our revolutionary cause.”
It was necessary to pay sufficient attention to the state of the ANC and “avoid temptation of allowing our individual conduct and desire to tarnish the image and standing of the ANC”, Zikalala said.
The ANC’s continued existence was dependent on the trust that people continued to bestow on it, he said.
“Therefore, we must at all times refuse to project the people’s movement, through our conduct and articulations, as a movement that is self-serving. The ANC came into being as a result of struggles of the people. If, because of our conduct, people come to the determination, wittingly or unwittingly, that their struggles can best be pursued outside the ANC, the ANC will become irrelevant and eventually cease to exist,” he said.
Turning to the ANC presidency succession battle, Zikalala said being the deputy president did not mean the incumbent should automatically become president.
“As the PGC, we are unanimous on the principles that should inform the selection and election of leadership. Revolutionaries are not born but constructed by the struggles of our people, not by positions they hold in the revolution. As KwaZulu-Natal we do not subscribe to the notion the election of a deputy president implies that that comrade is automatically ordained to be a successor to the incumbent. If it was so [there] would be no need for elections.
“In addition to such an unwritten tradition, the leadership election should be driven by the strategic tasks of that moment and the quality of the available pool of leadership, rather than a supposedly natural selection due to the current leadership position. The assertion that a deputy is an inherent successor to the incumbent is devoid of scientific analysis of the tasks of the current phase of NDR and suitability of leadership quality and character to lead the movement in that phase of the struggle.
“If this must be a principle position in the movement then it has to be universally applicable rather self-serving and convenience because of conferences. The leadership must be chosen on the strength of its quality and not the position they hold,” Zikalala said.