Former South African president Jacob Zuma says he is trying to rescue the governing ANC, which is now part of a ruling coalition after losing its absolute majority in May, as it is the pioneering liberation struggle “organisation of our ancestors.”
Zuma, who now leads the opposition uMkhonto weSizwe, says his political mission is to take over the country and then regain control of the ANC to retain and maintain the same liberation philosophy and thinking of the movement’s founding fathers.
That is why, he says, he will die in the ANC no matter what; he will remain in the party while fighting its current leaders to seize control of its leadership, thus rescuing Africa’s oldest liberation movement from the clutches of whites and capital.
For that to happen, blacks should unite and fight as a united front to “liberate the black person”.
Zuma’s critics say this sounds self-serving and even self-contradictory as he is killing the ANC, while claiming to be trying to rescue it for naked self-interest.
They also say Zuma speaks as if he was never president of the ANC and the country.
However, Zuma says there is nothing wrong with the ANC, that is its history, policies and programmes as framed by its founders; the problem is its current leaders and direction.
Video: Times Live
