Durban - A senior leader of the ANC in KZN has taken a swipe at children of Struggle stalwarts who claim that they have been "neglected", despite the role their fathers played in liberating the country.
In a blunt speech made on Sunday in Camperdown (Mkhambathini) where the party hosted an Oliver Tambo memorial lecture, coordinator of the Moses Mabhida region Mandla Zondi said members of the party must stop thinking that the party owes them something. He said it is members who join the party, not the other way round.
At first, he indirectly spoke about members who resist when they are asked to vacate their positions as if the party owes them something, hence they could not be recalled. He then later spoke about the children of the stalwarts.
Zondi, who claims that he is a direct descendant of Inkosi Bhambatha Zondi, accused the party members of harbouring entitlement as if the party owes them something.
Inkosi Bhambatha Zondi was the ruler of the Zondi clan in the KZN Midlands who launched one of the major resistance actions against colonialists when he led the revolt against poll tax imposed on his subjects.
Zondi said that he was shocked to see in the news that some children of the stalwarts say they feel aggrieved that they were neglected.
Mandla Zondi, a senior leader of the ANC in KZN says children of ANC struggle stalwarts must know that the ANC does not owe them. Video: Sihle Mavuso
However, the last time the children of Struggle stalwarts last hogged the headlines was in April 2016 when they called for former ANC and country president Jacob Zuma to resign after the Constitutional Court ruled that the remedial actions of the Public Protector are binding and thus Zuma had to pay for his Nkandla home upgrades.
Speaking at the same lecture, Kwazi Mshengu, a provincial executive member of the party in the province, pleaded for unity in the deeply divided region which was due to hold its elected conference this year. He said members should not close the space for dissenting voices.
Mshengu said at the heart of all these problems that the party and the region faces was that some party members who monopolize structures of the party and manage them like their personal fiefdoms.