Durban - KwaZulu-Natal ANC chairperson Sihle Zikalala has challenged detractors of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to stop using her relationship to President Jacob Zuma as a weapon to stymie her presidential ambitions.
Addressing hundreds of ANC supporters at an ANC Youth League anniversary rally in uMlazi, south of Durban, Zikalala said there were many other ANC leaders who were elected to senior positions despite their spouses being in the leadership positions.
“Today if you are married to a certain comrade, it is said you cannot be elected because you are married to that comrade.
“When the ANCYL was established, Albertina Sisulu was not asked whether she was related to Walter Sisulu or not, she was just elected as a leader in her own right,” said Zikalala.
He accused Dlamini Zuma’s critics of being disrespectful by “rating women leaders on the basis of their husbands”.
“That is nothing but chauvinism Why isn’t that question put to everyone when they join the ANC? Comrade Winnie Mandela was not asked who her spouse was when she was elected to lead the UDF.”
Zikalala is Dlamini Zuma’s campaigner for the ANC presidential position against Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
But on Sunday he took a swipe at Ramaphosa’s critics, defending Ramaphosa from insults that linked him to the massacre of mineworkers at Marikana.
Since the campaign started it has become common for Dlamini Zuma’s supporters to accuse Ramaphosa of being party to the massacre of 34miners in 2012.
However, Zikalala was unhappy with eThekwini regional chairperson Thembo Ntuli attacking Ramaphosa when he addressed the same event ahead of him.
Instead Zikalala said ANC members should be tolerant of each other “because all candidates are members of the ANC, and we need them to be elected to the national executive committee”.
“The Marikana utterances was wrong. There was an investigation into the massacre and the report was handed to the president, who is not implementing recommendations.
“Therefore we should not campaign by badmouthing other candidates.
“We would not celebrate when other leaders are facing troubles,” he said.
Ramaphosa had apparently referred to the ANCYL members as “being stupid” at anniversary celebrations in Gauteng.
Ntuli had said in so doing, Ramaphosa was “provoking a snake on (sic) its hole”.
Ntuli said: “That man want to be the president at all costs, and when his campaign fails he refers to young people as stupid. We are not stupid - we are
ready for you We must remind you, Cyril Ramaphosa, that you killed people in Marikana.”