Cape Town - ANC factions launched into open warfare at the funeral of stalwart Makhenkesi Stofile on Thursday, where President Jacob Zuma came under attack as the battle over the possible arrest of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan escalated.
Former foreign affairs director-general Sipho Pityana was scathing in his assessment of Zuma during his speech at the funeral, and earned the wrath of the Zuma-aligned ANC Youth League.
The Youth League said on Friday that it was “disgusted” by Pityana's “unruly and disruptive character”. Those who had chosen a funeral to “vent their anger and frustration” should've known that African custom frowned on this, “no matter how one seeks to please his fellow counter-revolutionaries”.
It called upon the ANC to discipline “those who pose as holier-than-thou revolutionaries and masters of the ANC”. This comes after Pityana told mourners at the Fort Hare funeral that if Zuma had been present, he would have called on him to resign.
Referring to the Constitutional Court judgment on Nkandla earlier this year, he said when the court found someone had broken their oath of office, “what it means is that you are honourable no longer”.
“What it means is that you are untrustworthy,” Pityana said to applause. He said accountability was “an important measure of respect for the people”.
“The reality is that some of the leaders have been co-opted to be on the eating trough.
“So we must ask the question: do we have leaders of the revolution, or do we have full-time thieves and looters?” said Pityana.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa also contradicted Zuma, who had said following the outcry over Gordhan he had no powers to stop an investigation, with the deputy president coming out in full support of the minister and saying his possible arrest “should concern us”.
“When the government works well it should not be a government that wages a war against itself,” Ramaphosa said in his first tacit questioning of the president since becoming his deputy - which is likely to be interpreted as his opening gambit in the succession race that is gathering steam in the wake of the ANC’s poor election results.
Amid signs that the pursuit of Gordhan was turning into a rallying point for those opposed to him, with civil society, business and former ANC heavyweights weighing in on the minister's behalf, Zuma did his best to deflect the backlash, saying that he had full confidence in his minister.
He also tried to allay suspicions over an announcement earlier in the week that he would take an even closer interest in the running of state-owned enterprises, saying the establishment of a presidential committee on parastatals was a recommendation from the cabinet.
Zuma is out of the country for almost two weeks on official business, suggesting that fears of an imminent cabinet reshuffle may be premature for now, but in the meantime, prospects of an early ANC conference appear to be growing.
Political Bureau