Cape Town - The gulf between the top brass and the rank and file of the ANC were made as clear as day at the weekend.
This, as ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile rammed home the message of unity at late Struggle hero Anton Fransch’s commemoration in Athlone, while – at the same time on Saturday – former president Jacob Zuma addressed the ANC in Philippi.
Mashatile spoke for an hour about Fransch and members’ commitment to their communities while Zuma used the Philippi event to launch another scathing attack on President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Some senior ANC leaders, including
Mashatile and ANC MP Faiez Jacobs, were not aware of the Zuma event.
In Philippi, Zuma was welcomed with “amagwijo” hymns while Mashatile received the same highpitched sing-song treatment and a colourful Cape flavour in the form of minstrels in Athlone.
Mashatile spoke at length about a unified ANC, which he said Fransch would have loved to see.
Fransch was killed by an apartheid bomb after a heroic seven-hour gun battle against the Security Branch.
The Weekend Argus quoted Zuma as urging the delegates to “correct” everything that had gone wrong at the 2017 elective conference in Nasrec, as it had weakened the party.
“I have never seen a man being feared so much, that the police are also scared of arresting him,” he is quoted as saying in reference to the Phala Phala allegations. The behaviour of the leadership leaves a lot to be desired.
“The ANC must be rescued from the situation it finds itself in. We need to bring the ANC back.”
Zuma accused Ramaphosa of having bought the presidency and said the incumbent had not seen through the implementation of the Nasrec resolutions. Asked about the clash of his event and Zuma’s, Mashatile said: “I don’t know about that (Zuma) programme, but I don’t think we must constrain members of the ANC (about attendance).”
ANC ward 35 deputy secretary Theo Gatya, who organised the Zuma event in Philippi, said: “If the way things are done in the Dullah Omar region was correct, the clash wouldn’t have happened. I didn’t receive any information (about Mashatile’s event) in my branch.
“Whoever is leading the region didn’t inform the branches in time. What I can tell you is that we invited comrade Jacob Zuma because we thought he is experienced about radical economic transformation (RET) as an ANC policy and we wanted to be lectured about RET.
“We only saw the Athlone poster a day before our event and we had already called comrade Zuma at that time.”
ANC interim provincial committee member Andile Lili, who was at the Fransch event, however, said the two events didn’t point to divisions, but added those who claimed ignorance about the Athlone event were lying.
Meanwhile, the Mail & Guardian reported on Friday that a Standard Bank analyst flagged Mashatile’s campaign as “stealthy”. He believed Mashatile could benefit from Ramaphosa’s and Zweli Mkhize’s scandals.