Senzo Mchunu ‘not happy’ with the ANC’s state

Former Kwazulu-Natal premier Senzo Mchunu has expressed his “unhappiness” about the current state of the African National Congress (ANC), saying he cannot say if President Jacob Zuma is still a good leader for the ruling party.

In a wide-ranging interview with EWN published on Wednesday, Mchunu – who was forced to resign from his job last year after losing the ANC’s provincial leadership battle to Sihle Zikalala – said that if the party continued to be beset by factions and infighting, it would lose the elections in 2019.

He said it pained him to see factions and divisions characterise the party he had been a member of for years.

Asked about Zuma’s leadership, he said: “We [ANC] do need to change direction.”

‘Ramaphosa is capable to lead’

As ANC’s leadership race heats up and party leaders try to discourage its members from making pronouncements on the leadership race ahead of the elective conference later this year, Mchunu said he did not see why Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa shouldn’t succeed Zuma for the top job.

He said the tradition that the deputy takes over party reins from the president was a principle that had guided the ANC’s leadership succession for years, adding that Ramaphosa is capable to lead the party and country.

“Currently, there is a deputy president, who is Cyril Ramaphosa, who is eligible,” he said.

The former KZN chairperson has been rumoured to belong to Ramaphosa’s camp and to be leading a faction in the province, opposed to outing going African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma candidacy.

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Last week, speaking to the SABC’s public radio stations, Zuma said there was no ANC “culture” that permitted the party’s deputy to succeed the president and said it was merely an accident of history.

While on Tuesday ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said the party’s national working committee had resolved that no ANC members or any of its structure going forward would be allowed to discuss the names of possible candidates for presidency.

She said the most important focus for the party’s structures should be on values and not names.

“We are hoping that if we can minimise the utilisation of factions, we will be able to produce a list that is nationally representative of a broad spectrum of ideas and people in our society. That is why we are asking people not to talk about names but to talk about values.”

Duarte was speaking at a meeting with South African media editors in Parktown, Johannesburg.