‘ANC needs to be quick in fixing challenges ahead of its 55th Elective conference’

Former African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma says the ANC needs to be quick in fixing challenges facing the party ahead of its 55th national elective conference.

Zuma was speaking in uMlazi south of Durban, when he delivered the Oliver Thambo memorial lecture.

He says the ANC is going to the conference facing unresolved challenges such as the revival of the party and the failure to pay salaries of its workers.

Zuma has been nominated by his branch in Nkandla to make a return to active politics as one of the contenders for the national chairperson’s position.

As the ANC prepares to hold its elective conference, challenges such as the division among party members and the decrease of support are some of the contentious issues it is faced with.

The former president has identified the emergence of more than five NEC members to contest the ANC presidency as a challenge on its own.

“It may be useful to explain what had happened to our organisation to have so many members of the NEC deciding to contest for only one position. Two contesting comrades have been nominated within the framework of the ANC. These were Nkosazana-Dlamini Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa. Then an additional five candidates emerged from nowhere.”

Zuma warned about the use of the money during conferences, accusing some leaders in the past, including Ramaphosa, of influencing delegates to vote in a particular manner.

“There are clear allegations made that Cyril Ramaphosa who contesting the presidency used a lot of money to buy the positions as the president of the ANC. When these allegations were made, the figure was put at a billion, and at the Zondo commission, Ramaphosa openly admitted that he used the money to buy the position but said it was just over R300 million.”

The former President called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to account for the Phala-Phala farm robbery saga. Zuma says Ramaphosa is not above the law.

“The delegates of the branch must go and ask tough questions. They must ask Ramaphosa how he differs from ordinary members of the ANC. They must ask him why he is not arrested as you were found in possession of money under the bed? Perhaps the police are afraid to act against him because he is the employer. He must tell us the place called Phala-Phala, what was the money found on the farm doing there.”

Zuma has blamed the current national leadership for having failed to implement most of the resolutions taken in the previous ANC conference held in 2017.

Discussion on Ramaphosa’s deadline to answer MPs on Phala-Phala: