Durban - Former public enterprises minister Barbara Hogan has called on ANC veterans to continue to rally behind the party under President Cyril Ramaphosa as his grouping within the party was the only hope at helping it out of its current morass.
Hogan’s call comes as several ANC stalwarts vowed to continue hounding leaders who have made it onto the party’s list of representatives ahead of the general elections. She was speaking on Thursday at the second anniversary of the death of her husband, the late Struggle and ANC stalwart Ahmed Kathrada in Johannesburg.
Hogan said Ramaphosa’s task of renewal was almost impossible and that veterans had to amplify the voices of those who were genuinely working on renewal within the ANC.
“We have to position ourselves behind the progressive forces. Those people who are on lists must know that they should not be there,” Hogan said.
Former ANC deputy secretary-general Cheryl Carolus said the veterans also wanted Ramaphosa to know that he had people within the country who were backing him if he was committed to renew the ANC and the country.
“He cannot do it with a slender majority. Let us get over ourselves and understand that it is not just his job. It is everyone’s job to ensure that the renewal in the ANC that has started and brought us all these people who are being exposed and institutions that are now being strengthened continues,”Carolus said.
Environmental Affairs Minister Nomvula Mokonyane, who has been implicated in the Bosasa bribes-for-contracts scandal, Minister in the Presidency for Women Bathabile Dlamini and former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba - who have both been fingered in perjury by the courts - are among senior party leaders on the radar of the stalwarts.
Carolus said there were still state-owned entities that were dogged by crisis after crisis because of poor governance and looting, which, she said, meant state capture could still continue if not vigilantly checked and uprooted.
“We need to reactivate the networks against state capture so that we do not become complacent like once before. We must make our voices heard. We cannot be forced to accept people in leadership positions with ‘smallanyana’ skeletons in the cupboards or braai packs from questionable sources in their freezers,” she said.