Durban - eThekwini Mayor and senior ANC KZN provincial executive committee (PEC) member Mxolisi Kaunda has told members of the ruling party to reclaim their governing powers "from Stellenbosch capitalists“.
In a videotaped speech delivered on Monday in Mgababa, south of Durban during the burial of eThekwini councillor and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) veteran, Bheki Thabethe, Kaunda said members should not even fear the severe consequences of touching the feared Stellenbosch capitalists.
The full video is still available on the Facebook page of the eThekwini municipality which streamed the funeral live.
At the funeral, Kaunda shared the platform with former eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede, who rebuked ANC members who find it easy to work with the likes of FW de Klerk, the last apartheid president of the country, while being hostile to fellow comrades.
Speaking to the mourners in Zulu, Kaunda said it does not help to watch the ANC being shunned by voters when the problem is known and could be resolved by either speaking out or fighting back.
“Comrades, we are the representatives of the ANC, not ourselves. We can’t have an ANC shunned by voters because of certain people. Those who have grabbed the ANC’s ruling powers and gave them to Stellenbosch, we must fight back, grab those powers and hand them back to the ANC… Those powers must be handed over back to the ANC, because if we are going to be afraid and say we will be labelled for calling for that even when we see a problem, we are in trouble, being labelled and told you are this and that it, means nothing.
“The most important thing is to protect the ANC. My people, we cannot be controlled by capitalists, have capitalists controlling the economy, no. We cannot fool ourselves and say we are in full control of the economy even when we know that it is in the hands of the capitalists. The economy is not yet in our hands and in order to get it on our hands, we need a strong and brave ANC,” Kaunda is heard saying in the video, which is now being widely circulated.
He did not specify who handed the reins to the Stellenbosch capitalists or who those capitalists are. And as he continued with the outburst, senior ANC members in the front row, are seen clapping.