Durban - The alleged use of money at the ANC's national elective conference in Nasrec, three years ago, robbed the party of an opportunity to implement radical economic transformation (RET) and free education, says former president Jacob Zuma.
Zuma said it was unfortunate money was used to allegedly swing the conference which saw Cyril Ramaphosa emerge as party president. He had contested Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for the hotly contested presidency to succeed Zuma.
“That people were bought is no longer just what people saw at the time, it is what has come to the fore as evidence. The amount of money that came out is a reality.
“We are not just speculating, there are figures, there are accounts and there is everything that was there,” he said.
Zuma was speaking with his son Duduzane in part two of the Zooming Zuma dialogue they have posted on YouTube.
He was not the first ANC leader to make allegations that the outcome of the conference was influenced by money. Former premier Tokyo Sexwale and Meshack Radebe, former KwaZulu-Natal Parliament speaker, were among those who had made similar allegations in the past.
“Nasrec, instead of helping us move forward, left scars that would take a long time to heal,” said Zuma.
It was the first time Zuma expressed his feelings about the outcome of the conference.
He said, apart from being one of the delegates, he had gone to the conference to say goodbye as ANC president, and to also present key issues he had identified as the important ANC policy matters that needed to be implemented.
He mentioned such issues included RET, free education and land.
“These critical and cardinal issues were the issues that the ANC would have said here is the programme to implement.
“But I think the attitude towards that thereafter would tell you that the ANC was kind of a different thing,” he said.
He alleged delegates were being intimidated with hunger that “if you don’t do this”.
He said he was aggrieved when the new ANC leadership under Ramaphosa decided to remove him as state president 18 months before the end of his term.
“They said it was too late, he must go now,” he said.
Former president Thabo Mbeki was also removed in similar circumstances when he was defeated at Polokwane, in 2007.
He was replaced by the then ANC secretary-general, Kgalema Motlanthe, in September 2008, just eight months before his term ended.
Zuma described his axing as the first time the had recalled “the president who had done absolutely nothing (wrong)”.
“I think those were the very serious shots that were fired after the Nasrec conference of the ANC.
“It was clear that here we were faced with a kind of new situation that was not looking at the principles, not respecting the membership of the ANC that had elected people,” said Zuma.
When Duduzane asked his father if his expression were not influenced by being bitter as a result of Dlamini Zuma losing, Zuma said anyone who made that suggestion would not have come from South Africa.
“The fact that money was the biggest, which was seen, is the reality, it is not sour grape, it is reality,” Zuma said.