Durban - Social media was abuzz with some expressing support for troubled former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede after she took to Twitter and Facebook to denounce the raids on her properties this week.
Gumede, who is campaigning to again be elected eThekwini regional chairperson, escaped re-arrest after a Durban court found she had not intentionally violated her bail conditions by not informing the police that she had moved out of her rented house in Durban North to return to her Inanda home.
Gumede told social media friends there should be unity within the ANC ahead of the regional conference, which is set to take place at the end of the year.
Expressing her feelings, Gumede quoted late struggle stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and said: "There is no longer anything I can fear. There is nothing the government has not done to me. There isn't any pain I haven't known."
She also wrote on her Facebook page “Kwanqaba umusa ngempilo yami, sebethi baqedile ebusuku (they cannot finish me off)”.
She also denied that the Assets Forfeiture Unit seized cars from her home in Inanda, north of Durban, during the raid on Thursday morning.
“I own three Toyota vehicles and two of them are not in the working condition. “The false reporting and misinformation must come to an end,” she wrote.
She said the ANC’s biggest region should focus on building unity.
“As we approach regional conference and nominations weekend, let’s focus on Uniting the Region. The enemy wants to see a divided ANC in the region - our focus is unity. United we stand and divided we fall - unity is sacrosanct. Branches are the basic unit of our organization and let’s remain rooted on the ground,” she wrote.