ANC Mpumalanga and KZN call on Guptas to give ruling party space

ANC Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal have distanced themselves from the Guptas, and have asked the controversial family – close friends of President Jacob Zuma – to give the governing party space to conduct its business.

Briefing the media on Monday following a joint provincial working committee meeting between the two provinces in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, Premier David Mabuza, the ANC provincial chairperson, and ANC KZN chairperson Sihle Zikalala both blamed the family for damaging the party’s public image.

“All the negative aspects that are accompanied by this relationship between the president and the Guptas, we want to distance ourselves from that. It is our view that it’s time that the Guptas must allow the ANC to execute its duties. They must behave like any other businesspeople; they should not in any way seek to probably influence the ANC in whatever way,” Mabuza said.

Zikalala referred to the Guptas as the “parasitic bourgeois”, saying South Africans should not view the ANC in the image of the family.

“We are emerging from this engagement with a clear view that the conduct presented in a number of newspapers and in the media at large, the conduct of the Guptas represents the worst you could expect, and if it is proven, serious action must be taken,” he said.

However, both Mabuza and Zikalala appeared to distance Zuma from the allegations levelled against the family, saying the commission of inquiry into state capture, as proposed by the public protector, would be the correct platform to test whether the president is guilty of any misconduct.

Last month, Mayor Mzwandile Masina, the ANC Ekurhuleni chairperson, also called on the Guptas to give the ANC space during the uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association’s national conference, which was attended by Zuma.

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