Johannesburg - The ANC said former president Jacob Zuma’s continuing court case for corruption in a KwaZulu-Natal court is painful for the party.
This was revealed in outgoing ANC Deputy President David Mabuza’s organisational report, which he delivered today, on day two of the party’s 55th National Elective Conference in Nasrec, south of Johannesburg.
The report, seen by The Star, said the NEC – shortly after the 54th conference in February 2018 – took a decision after deliberations and debate to recall Zuma as president.
The report said the NEC engaged with structures in the regional and provincial general councils to explain the decision.
“This is a painful matter for the ANC to see an elderly former leader, who is in retirement, having to contend with criminal charges,” said Mabuza.
Zuma trended in the media on Friday and earlier today after he made a grand entrance on the first day of the conference while president Cyril Ramaphosa was delivering his political report.
Some delegates, mostly from KZN, disrupted the occasion as they broke into a song favouring Zuma and asked, “wenzeni uZuma?” (what has Zuma done?)
Mabuza’s report also touched on the suspension of its secretary-general Ace Magashule. The report said this is probably the first time in the history of the ANC that the office of the secretary-general is in this situation, and the party has been going through a testing period.
Magashule was suspended according to the party’s step-aside rule after he was charged with corruption, fraud, and money laundering for his alleged role in the R255-million asbestos roofing eradication project in the Free State during his tenure as the province’s premier.
“For the first time in more than a century of the ANC, it ended the term without its elected secretary-general officials. This followed Magashule being charged with counts of corruption in the Bloemfontein High Court in November 2021 and the step-aside regulations coming into effect, leading to his suspension by the NEC in May 2021,” said Mabuza.
The report said the ability of the NEC to act in a united, cohesive, and effective manner in providing leadership to the organisation and society was impeded by the persistence of many of the divisions that characterised the process leading up to the 54th national conference.
ntombi.nkosi@inl.co.za
The Star