ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula at the Curries Fountain Stadium in Durban on Workers Day. Photo: Screengrab
African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Fikile Mbalula has slammed former President Jacob Zuma saying he handed South Africa to the Guptas on a “silver tray.”
Mbalula was speaking at Curries Fountain Stadium in Durban in front of thousands of supporters on Wednesday.
During his address, Mbalula spoke about the ANC’s ambitious jobs plan including supporting traditional leadership.
However Mbalula lashed out at the former president during the rally, which was also attended by Cosatu and other alliance partners.
Mbalula said the ANC told Zuma that they were helping him by recalling him.
“He isn’t telling the truth. He is only telling half the truth. He says we removed him as president, he doesn’t know where he was going. That is why they sing the song ‘What did so and so do?’
“How would the ANC keep a president who was arrested for evil? We told him that “we are removing you because we are helping you’. He was president for years and years. Today he says he will make things happen. What was stopping him in the years we gave him?” Mbalula asked.
Mbalula said Zuma handed South Africa to the Guptas.
“He took the country and gave it to Indians who come from India, who are called the Guptas. He gave them SA in a silver tray. The old man ate curry. We fought for him, helping him here and there, but we did nothing to him.
“Even where you are you must know the truth that there is nothing we did to him,” Mbalula said.
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Mbalula claimed some people want to take the country backwards.
“We are fighting the enemy in this country, the enemy who is pulling back the struggle, trying to strip us off [our] freedom. We must fight, comrades. Fight.
“The ANC has no case of wrongdoing. The case of wrongdoing is the person. Some of the people who destroy the ANC put theft and greed first when we put them in leadership positions. We say down with thieves, down. We say down with corruption, down. We say down with greed, down,” Mbalula said.
Zuma resigned as President of the country in 2019 after intense pressure from the ANC but said he disagreed with the governing party’s decision.
Meanwhile, Mblula also said the ANC is going to create millions of Jobs.
“The ANC is going to create 2,5 million work opportunities within the next 5 years. This will greatly assist in fighting unemployment.
“Over the past years, the ANC has been meeting basic needs of working people and instituting a social wage, through housing, electricity, water and sanitation, education and health, public transport, and infrastructure. That is the work the ANC is involved in,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula added that the ANC respects traditional leadership.
“I want to say that the ANC respects traditional leadership. Do you hear me, workers? We respect amakhosi and we support them. Here in KZN, we respect the Zulu king and support him. We do not want politics meddling in traditional leadership.”
Mbalula said the ANC was not taking sides on issues of traditional leadership.
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