Cyril takes swipe at ‘perpetrators of division’ in ANC, without naming Ace

In a thinly veiled attack on ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, President Cyril Ramaphosa said those who divided the ANC were counter-revolutionaries and must be exposed for their actions.

Speaking at labour union Cosatu’s 13th National Congress in Midrand yesterday, Ramaphosa said nobody must bow to machinations meant to weaken the ANC.

While it was clear that he was referring to the recent gathering in Durban by his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, and his allies who allegedly discussed a plan to oust Ramaphosa, the president did not mention any names.

Instead he hit hard at the perpetrators of division and emphasised unity within the ruling party.

“Our people want to see a united ANC; we have to focus on renewal and unity. Even those comrades who did not love one another, it is time to unite now,” Ramaphosa said in the presence of the ANC working committee members, which included Magashule.

“We cannot go to those elections (in 2019) with a divided leadership. We cannot go to those elections with a divided membership. Any attempt to divide the ANC will be counter-revolutionary. Let us move forward as a united army. Those who want to divide the ANC must be exposed,” Ramaphosa said.

He said the ANC came out of its 54th national conference at Nasrec in December 2017 with a single agenda to unite and to renew itself.

“We cannot afford anyone to drive a wedge into our march to that unity,” he said.

He said the ANC members must work for a decisive victory in 2019.

He also said the ANC would never abandon Cosatu, which is regarded as its permanent ally and encouraged it to work towards achieving its historic goal to have one country and one federation.

Ramaphosa said the federation must bring back those who left it and ensure the unity of all workers under one federation.

On corruption, Ramaphosa said all those who stole resources of the poor must be prosecuted and the monies recovered from them. The money meant for the poor could not find its way into the pockets of corrupt officials.

Ramaphosa urged Cosatu to play a leading role in exposing corruption in both the public and private sectors. He challenged public sector unions to ensure graft was destroyed in all its forms in government.

The president also assured delegates the government had no plans to retrench civil servants at all. This ended months of speculation about whether the government planned to lay off 80 000 civil servants as part of cost-cutting and dealing with the bloated civil service.

Earlier in the same gathering, Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini criticised the government about the plan to lay off civil servants.

Dlamini hit at Ramaphosa’s New Dawn vision, saying instead of bringing hope, it brought misery in the form of the pending public service retrenchments, which added to layoffs in the private sector.

The rumours of layoffs almost caused a clash between the government and the trade union movement, which vowed to fight it tooth and nail.

It increased divisions within the Tripartite Alliance and even within the ANC itself, with leaders like Magashule saying the party would oppose the retrenchments.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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