[SOUTH AFRICA'S RULING PARTY ANC SECRETARY GENERAL] MANTASHE DENIES MANGAUNG VIOLENCE
GREG NICOLSON SOUTH AFRICA
14 DECEMBER 2012 12:58 (SOUTH
AFRICA)
Speaking at The New Age business
breakfast Thursday morning ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe has refuted
claims that the run-up to the party’s Mangaung elections have been marred by
violence. By GREG NICOLSON for NEWSFIRE.
“It’s not getting worse, I can
tell you,” Mantashe said ahead of the ANC’s election in Mangaung. He claimed
that ANC leaders have reduced the level of political violence since their
election in Polokwane. “Where is this violence?” asked Mantashe, suggesting
media reports had been exaggerated.
The breakfast was held as reports
were emerging of violence in the troubled North West overnight. “Last night a
regional secretary, Obuti Chika, in the Kenneth Kaunda (Klerksdorp) region was
shot and killed,” said Mantashe. He didn’t elaborate on the death of the North
West ANC member nor did he touch on the recent suspension of North West
provincial secretary Kabelo Mataboge. Mataboge was suspended on Thursday after
surviving a suspected assassination attempt last week and is a supporter of Kgalema
Motlanthe for ANC president.
While praising the party for
meeting its long-standing goal of achieving one million members, Mantashe said
problems within the ANC come largely from the massive increase in membership.
“When you open that window, fresh air comes in and mosquitoes come in,” he
said, suggesting new members had joined for self-enrichment. “When you go to
elections people will treat the ANC as a life and death issue… People see the
opportunity, instead of seeing the ANC as an opportunity to serve,” said
Mantashe.
Justice minister and ANC head of
policy Jeff Radebe said the party would not allow such problems in Mangaung.
“The ANC is in full control of its members and is running this country,” he
said.
Both Radebe and Mantashe
condemned ANC members who take the organisation to court. Factions in the North
West and Free State are currently disputing the processes and decisions of
their provincial nominations and the delegates who will be sent to Mangaung. By
late Friday morning, the Constitution Court ruled that the Free State African
National Congress elective conference was unlawful and its results invalid. Six
Free State ANC members took the party to court to dispute the elective
conference, claiming branch-level elections were fraught with illegal and
irregular behaviour.
Even before the court gave its
decision, Radebe had preoclaimed, “Those that take the ANC to court, they have
expelled themselves.”
He suggested that there might be
a campaign to discredit the ANC, “Of the 16 cases that go to court, one
advocate goes to court,” said Radebe, likely referring to Advocate Dali Mpofu
who is representing ANC members in Free State and North West and has previously
represented expelled Youth League leader Julius Malema. “You have some
association that sits in a corner with this one advocate searching for
witnesses… It’s not spontaneous. It’s organized,” added Mantashe.
The New Age has held business
breakfasts in conjunction with government throughout the year featuring
interviews through the SABC and allowing guests to ask questions from the
floor. Asked about the media, Radebe said newspapers have clearly taken an
editorial stance on who they support in the ANC, and that the party supports
“an organisation like The New Age” because it “reports fairly”. He was critical
of South African media and asked to laughter “why let the facts ruin a good
story”. DM
GREG NICOLSON SOUTH AFRICA
 |
| Kgalema Motlanthe: his imminent election to power is marked by bloodshed at factory floors order by Zuma through some non-law-abiding police officers where the Code of Conduct for any law-abiding officer in the Republic of South Africa is clear: 'YOU MAY NOT TAKE A CLEARLY-UNLAWFUL ORDER EVEN IF IT COMES FROM THE STATE PRESIDENT'. When you go through the story on this post you learn there even intra-party violence against those who are perceived to be pro-Motlanthe, a non-Nguni and part of the larger Sotho-ethnicity (Pedi, Tswana, Sotho-Moshoeshoe) who have practically never ruled the ANC practically for the past 70 years. Nelson Mandela is the one who championed the turning of the ANC into a Xhosa-speaker preserve making it extremely difficult as it was for a Zulu-speaker to take over the presidency as evidence in the Polokwane elective of the organization BUT EVEN MORE FORMIDABLE FOR NON-NGUNI MOTLANTHE TO TAKE OVER THE LEADERSHIP. However: the entire Republic of South Africa is behind Motlanthe as of now, and I believe delegates of the ANC have sufficient maturity to know how to vote for both the ANC and South Africa's progress. Enough is enough with black racists and Nguni tribalists like a current ANC leader and Nelson Mandela for we are ONE PEOPLE IN SOUTH AFRICA, BLACK, WHITE, TSWANA, OR KHOI-SAN! |
MORE ON MANGAUNG!!!!
http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2012/12/13/zuma-motlanthe-will-struggle-to-work-together-analyst
[EVEN DOUBLE-DEALING BISHOP TUTU WHO HAS STAYED SATISFIED WITH HIS
FELLOW-XHOSA-SPEAKERS BANISHING MY FAMILY FOR 18 YEARS DOWN THE LINE IS SICK
AND TIRED OF HIS FELLOW-NGUNI-ZUMA…. FIREWORKS INDEED!!!]
Sapa | 12 December, 2012 07:39
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has criticised the
expansion of President Jacob Zuma's home in Nklandla, it was reported on
Wednesday.
"Who in their right minds could have approved the
expenditure of more than R200 million? And to do it in that area, where you
have this nice place standing up and just around there the squalor and
poverty," said Tutu.
"What is the matter with us?"
The Star newspaper reported that Tutu was speaking at the
unveiling of a bench and tree in memory of struggle stalwart Kader Asmal at the
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens on Saturday.
A video of the event was shown to reporters on Tuesday.
He told National Planning Minister Trevor Manuel, who
attended the event: "You don't belong in this government."
Tutu expressed concern about the state of education, the
failure to deliver textbooks in Limpopo earlier this year and the recently
released results of the National Assessments, which showed that Grade Nine
maths pupils scored on average 13%.
"Trevor, you tell your boss this old man who said he
was retired, I am going to come back.
"You tell him that this old man is now going to pray
like he prayed for the Nats [the National Party, which enforced
apartheid]."
Zuma's private residence has recently been upgraded, at a
reported cost of R200m. The matter is currently being investigated by a public
works task team.
[Writers:] SIYABONGA SHOBA and DOMINIC MAHLANGU | 14
December, 2012 00:02
DEPUTY President Kgalema Motlanthe will contest the three
positions that ANC members have nominated him for and will respect the decision
of the national conference.
His spokesman, Thabo Masebe, yesterday said: "The
deputy president was informed by the electoral commission that he was nominated
for the position of president, deputy president and as an additional member [of
the national executive committee].
"He said he would be accepting nomination to all the
positions. His view is that members must decide.
"He is prepared to serve the ANC in whatever capacity
the conference decides ...
"For him to be elected he must accept nomination, but
he can't choose [the position he wants]. It is not up to him, it's up to
conference."
Motlanthe's decision to officially enter the race now shifts
focus to businessman Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been nominated by a faction that
supports President Jacob Zuma to step in should Motlanthe contest against Zuma
for the top post.
So far, Ramaphosa has played his cards close to his chest
and has not indicated whether he will accept nomination. It would be
interesting to see who Zuma's supporters would vote for should Motlanthe decide
to contest for his current position and Ramaphosa joins the race.
Yesterday, the ANC's electoral commission said the names of
candidates would be revealed once all the nominees had officially responded.
On Wednesday, Mathews Phosa and Tokyo Sexwale became the
first senior ANC leaders to accept nomination.
Phosa will contest the position of deputy president against
Motlanthe and Ramaphosa if he agrees to join the race.
They were joined by Fikile Mbalula, Thandi Modise and
Thenjiwe Mtintso on the anti-Zuma slate.
The ANC Youth League, which nominated Motlanthe to replace
Zuma as ANC president, yesterday said it was excited that Motlanthe had
accepted the nomination.
It said Motlanthe was a "fearless leader who refused to
be intimidated and stood by ANC principles". It said he was th e future of
South Africa.
"We have learned many critical lessons from the manner
in which Comrade Kgalema Motlanthe has conducted himself in the lead-up to the
53rd national conference.
"Unlike many members and leaders who continue to erode
the founding values and traditions of the ANC by going out to campaign for
themselves, Comrade Kgalema has reaffirmed the notion that the leadership of
the ANC is earned through service," the league said.
Motlanthe's decision to contest all three positions has been
lauded by some within the party, who said the slate politics that continued to
destroy the organisation had been shaken.
They said Motlanthe's conduct proved that he placed his fate
in the hands of ANC members and not with lobby groups.
Zuma is likely to retain his position following the
overwhelming support he received from a majority of ANC structures.
'Motlanthe will be president': Lamola
Sapa | 30 July, 2012 23:54
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe will be ANC president,
ANCYL deputy president Ronald Lamola said in Johannesburg on Monday.
"It is given comrades that the current deputy president
of the ANC, comrade Kgalema, will one day become the president of the
ANC," Lamola said.
"It will be a generational error if he does not become
the president. We will be rewriting the history of the African National
Congress."
Lamola was addressing the ANC Youth League's Dr Mxolisi
Majombozi branch at the University of the Witwatersrand.
He was reporting back on the league's policy conference held
in June, the league's role, and reflecting on former president Nelson Mandela's
contribution to the struggle.
He said it was tradition in the mother body for the ANC's
deputy president to take over from the president.
"What we are going to do when this debate is opened
towards Mangaung, we are going to debate when he must become the
president," Lamola said to a cheering crowd. He was referring to the ANC's
elective conference, to be held in Mangaung in December.
"That he will be president is given."
Before Lamola spoke, attendees chanted "let Kgalema
rule".
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