Johannesburg -The battle for the soul of the ANC got ugly on Monday, with Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, one of President Jacob Zuma’s backers, launching a scathing attack on party veterans and stalwarts who want Zuma to step down.
Mbalula, one of those who blocked a motion of no confidence in the president at the ANC national executive committee meeting at the weekend, told The Star on Monday the administration under Zuma was undoing some of the problems created by some of the veterans.
“We can’t be blackmailed by the stalwarts who are filthy and stinking rich, because they benefited from BEE (black economic empowerment). If they have made up their minds to sell out, they must leave the ANC out of it,” he said.
“We won’t be lectured by them. They masquerade as people who are genuinely concerned about the ANC, but we know they are not,” he added.
Mbalula was reacting to a statement by the veterans that those who blocked the motion of no confidence in Zuma at the meeting of the ANC’s top brass were beneficiaries of state capture.
In a statement released just before a media briefing on the NEC's outcomes, the veterans said Zuma supporters placed their own narrow political and financial interests above those of the country.
“There is little doubt that the most vociferous support for the president would naturally have come from those most directly involved in the project of state capture and the associated web of factionalism and corruption,” the stalwarts said on Monday.
“This group have yet again shown they clearly place their own narrow political and financial self-interests above those of the future of the ANC and to the detriment of the best interests of the country,” the statement added.
Mbalula was one of the NEC members who backed Zuma during the heated debates on the president’s fate. He argued that the stalwarts were not acting independently. “We are in fact reversing many wrong things that were done by them (stalwarts). They are filthy and stinking rich. They are masterminds of corruption,” added Mbalula.
Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe also blasted the veterans, saying they should bring proof that those who supported Zuma were beneficiaries of state capture. “Those who want President Zuma to step down are the ones who are rich. Some of them are long-serving cabinet ministers, they have good pensions,” he added.
When contacted for comment, ANC stalwart Rev Frank Chikane said he was in Singapore, while Murphy Morobe said he was not in a position to comment.
Another stalwart, Fazel Randera, said: “I don’t want to get into a discussion about what the minister said about us. I don’t want to attack anybody, we just want the ANC to go back to the principles of Madiba.”
ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Monday the NEC supported the proposal for the establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.
He said the party wanted reviews of the former public protector’s State of Capture report accelerated, so that they were not an obstacle to the inquiry. The report implicated Zuma’s friends, the Guptas, in interfering in the awarding of state contracts and the appointments of ministers.
Reports of emails implicating the Guptas in the running of the government surfaced at the weekend. The documents also showed that Zuma wanted to move his family to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
State capture is at the centre of calls from within and outside the ANC for Zuma to quit. Hours after Zuma and his backers thwarted attempts to unseat him, the alliance partners, the SACP and Cosatu, renewed their calls for Zuma to go, with Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande reiterating his call.