Dlamini-Zuma slates ANC factions, says they are destroying comrades

ANC presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has lashed out at factions within the governing party, saying factions do not help anyone in the party.

Delivering the Stephen Dlamini Memorial Lecture on Tuesday in Ixopo‚ in her own region of Harry Gwala, Dlamini-Zuma said factionalism was destroying the ANC, TimesLIVE reported.

“Factions must stop. If there is faction in this region as well, it should stop … factions destroys comrades‚ it destroys the ANC,” she was quoted as saying.

The former AU chairperson, who is seen as a frontrunner along with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to succeed Jacob Zuma as ANC president at the party’s elective conference in December, denied that she was on the campaign trail for the top job.

She encouraged members to follow the principles of democracy within the ANC and to embrace each other after it elects new leaders at the conference.

“If you win you should embrace the loser, and if you lose you should allow yourself to follow the winner‚” she said.

According to another report by News24, Dlamini-Zuma indirectly urged ANC members not to use the fact that she is Zuma’s ex-wife at the December conference, saying: “We must not allow people to say uwumuntu kasibanibani [you’re so and so’s lover]. A comrade is a comrade.”

She also spoke about the structure of the local economy and warned members that the revolution was not over since the ANC got into power in 1994, saying political power gained by the party was bound to be lost without economic power.

“Yes, we got political power. Political power without economic power means the revolution is not over. We must ensure we have black industrialists and ensure that the pattern of land ownership changes,” she said, while taking a shot at the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, which she said would not transform the economy to benefit the back majority.

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