Presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has joined other ANC leaders declared persona non grata at the koppie where 34 mineworkers were gunned down by police in Marikana in 2012.
The former AU Commission chairperson had taken her ambitious campaign to succeed President Jacob Zuma, as ANC president, to the North West province yesterday, when the drama unfolded.
Leaders of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) formed a human chain and prevented people from getting closer to the koppie, near Wonderkop.
The group, wearing Amcu's green T-shirts, said in Xhosa “Bogogo nizofunani entabeni yethu, asinifuni apha, ayondawo yokudlala le”, loosely translated, “Hey, you grannies, what do you want on our koppie? You are not welcome here. This is not a playground.”
This led ANC Women’s League deputy president Sisi Ntombela to intervening and telling the party faithful, who were travelling in numerous minibus taxis, to return to their transport, before swiftly leaving Marikana.
Ntombela was heckled by Amcu leaders when she said: "Let’s go back. These comrades are not ready.”
Amcu refused to address journalists.
Dlamini Zuma, however, is not the only ANC leader who is not wanted. Zuma and his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, another presidential front runner, are also not welcome.
The koppie, which has become a symbol of the frustrations of miners, is where 34 Lonmin workers were gunned down on August 16, 2012. Ten other people had been killed in the preceding week.
Earlier on her campaign trail, Dlamini Zuma had a closed-session meeting with the Bapo Ba Mogale Tribal Council, which later addressed the community, saying they supported leadership by women and declared Dlamini Zuma’s “endeavours to be a future president are endorsed”.
A beaming Dlamini Zuma, speaking to Independent Media on the sidelines, admitted for the first time in public that her campaign to become president was going ahead full steam.
“It’s going well,” she said, with ANCWL secretary-general Meokgo Matuba interjecting, “And we are very confident”.
Dlamini Zuma continued: “I think it’s important because the campaign has to also look at 2019 (national elections), and when you have the endorsement of the royal family it’s also important for 2019.”
When asked about her views on Zuma's proposal during the ANC policy conference that whoever loses the presidential race should automatically become deputy, Dlamini Zuma said: “That’s a matter for the branches and (the elective) conference (in December), and not for me as an individual.”
Addressing the community in the royal palace’s chambers, Dlamini Zuma stuck to her script of radical economic transformation to address the country’s challenges.
The economy, she said, was not “owned by us” but by “a few white people. Radical economic transformation is a necessity in South Africa”.
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