Political Analyst, Mcebisi Ndletyana, has described ANC president Jacob Zuma’s farewell speech as having lacked prospects of unity within the party and its alliance partners.
He says as much as he praised himself for the role he has played as the president of the ANC, he needed to assure the thousands of delegates that he is for the call for unity.
Zuma has called on all delegates to elect a leadership that will foster unity within the party and further improve the lives of South Africans.
Ndletyana says, “That speech was not unifying. It was a speech that was settling scores. All his allies got his positive mention in the speech, the women’s league and the youth league, and the veterans as well, because they have been critical of him – where he kind of called them troublesome, which implies that the youth league’s Collen Maine is more responsible than Vusi Msimang, which is obviously ‘absurd’ and is revealing of his intentions.”
Opening the 54th ANC National Elective Conference at Nasrec in Johannesburg, Zuma said factionalism is one of the key issues preventing the movement from growing.
“Scourges of factionalism, gatekeeping, ill-discipline, membership buying and infighting continue to afflict our movement. The leadership had to spend a lot of time visiting provinces to attend to these problems instead of focusing on building the ANC and leading the country to prosperity. Despite the challenges the ANC still represents the hopes, dreams and aspirations of millions of our people.”
