Senior ANC leaders boycotted Zuma birthday bash over funding concerns – report

A substantial number of senior ANC and Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) leaders reportedly boycotted President Jacob Zuma’s 75^th birthday bash last week after questions arose about who had funded the party held in Soweto.

The Sunday Independent reported at the weekend that many of the senior leaders it spoke to had indicated they snubbed the event at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown in order to register their unhappiness with the president.

They apparently argued that Zuma had destroyed the ANC to pursue his personal interests, and had handed the country to his friends, the Gupta family, following his midnight controversial Cabinet reshuffle.

The paper reported it saw an e-mail inviting all NEC members to the party, but those opposed to Zuma’s faction failed to pitch.

Four of the ANC’s top six leaders – secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize, deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and chairperson Baleka Mbete – were notably absent from the bash that was attended mostly by Zuma backers in the dominant faction of the ruling party.

It was Mantashe’s deputy, Jessie Duarte, ANC Women’s League president Bathabile Dlamini, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane and ANC Youth League president Collen Maine who were among Zuma’s staunch supporters who were present.

According to the report, several members of the ANC’s highest decision-making body – the national executive committee (NEC) – said they couldn’t attend the bash because they were concerned about its funding and that it had been organised to deflect attention from marches by opposition parties calling for Zuma’s resignation.

Mantashe told the paper he was not obliged to attend the party, and declined to comment on its funding.

Several other ANC officials referred questions on the funding to Mokonyane, who they said had organised the birthday bash and sourced the funding. However, Mokonyane couldn’t be reached for comment.

One NEC member, speaking on condition of anonymity to the paper, said Zuma’s birthday bash was a gathering of his close allies.

“It was an ANC mini-rally in the name of a birthday party. You just had to look at who was there. Where were the brothers and other relatives of the president?

“Many of us knew it was going to be a gathering of JZ’s inner circle to divert attention from the real pressing issues,” he said.

Another NEC member said they had deliberately spurned Zuma’s shindig.

“All of us (NEC) members did get the invites but many of us decided not to attend.”

An NEC member allied to the Zuma faction said Ramaphosa, Mantashe and Mkhize did not attend the party because they were still unhappy about the national working committee’s (NWC) backing of Zuma subsequent to the Cabinet reshuffle.

“There was a boycott of the party. Now I hear there was a problem among the top six about who is funding this party. This is his last birthday as the president of the ANC. And the ANC has never celebrated his birthday,” the NEC said.

There have been increasing demands among the ANC’s NEC members for the party to hold a special meeting to debate a motion of no confidence in Zuma’s leadership.

Senior ANC MP Mathole Motshekga, the party’s Western Cape leadership and the Umkhonto weSizwe council have supported calls for the special gathering of the ANC top brass.

They believe the NWC can’t deal with the crisis the party is facing as a management structure.

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