Cape Town – Former president Jacob Zuma is no longer a member of the ANC, according to the party’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo.
Last month, Zuma announced his support for the Umkhonto weSizwe party, a move considered by many as a breakaway faction of the ANC.
Mtolo acknowledged both good and bad attributes of Zuma but claimed that the ANC became more divided and weakened during Zuma’s time in the party, The Citizen reported.
“In the ANC as a party, you can’t deny that the ANC got more divided, more fragmented. Not only the ANC, but the entire alliance, Cosatu, the youth league, the women’s league, everything was in a disarray…It was very, very weak when he (Zuma) left,” the report quoted Mtolo as saying.
He asserted that Zuma left the ANC, and it wasn’t the party turning against him.
ICYMI: KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, says it is very hypocritical and unfair for former President Jacob Zuma to blame President Cyril Ramaphosa for the weak state of the party. https://t.co/WwnKPLSNIj
— SABC News (@SABCNews) January 24, 2024
“We have not left him, he has left the ANC… I think it is the hatred for (Cyril) Ramaphosa, but also he has realised that the ANC has at some point got enough of serving only his interest at some point.”
“I can tell you the support that we have given president Zuma, even after we were elected in 2022, the support we have given him is beyond any person, but there is a limit where you say I can’t go beyond this,” Mtolo said.
Mtolo argued that people who criticise Zuma’s actions should not be labelled as insulting but rather as pointing out wrongdoing.
“When you tell the truth they say you are insulting, arrogant and disrespectful. If a little girl gets raped by an old man and the child points out the old man and says he is a rapist, she is not insulting him, but she is pointing out a rapist. Let us separate insults from the truth,” Mtolo said, according to Times Live.
He claimed that some ANC members still defend Zuma’s actions, impacting the party negatively during election seasons.
Mtolo criticised Zuma’s new party venture, Umkhonto we Sizwe, and said that the former president owed the ANC an apology for weakening the party during his tenure.
Mtolo highlighted the decline in ANC support since 2009, attributing it to Zuma’s presidency.
Despite Zuma’s criticism of the current ANC under President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mtolo argued that the party had achieved more for its constituency under Ramaphosa’s leadership.
He pointed out that initiatives like the National Health Insurance and a minimum income wage were progressing under Ramaphosa, contrasting them with Zuma’s alleged inaction during his presidency.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
