‘Traitor’ Mathews Phosa ‘makes me want to vomit’, says Edward Zuma

President Jacob Zuma’s eldest son, Edward Zuma, on Monday responded to ANC struggle stalwart Mathews Phosa’s call for his father to step down from office, accusing the former Mpumalanga premier of speaking against the ruling party’s drive for “radical economic transformation” and siding with white capitalists.

“Ask him [Phosa] where he comes from. How he failed to unite the people of Mpumalanga. Why his [sic] not a cabinet minister. Purely we are not fools [sic].

“He is speaking against Radical Economic Transformation because he has been aggrieved,” Zuma said in a statement issued in his personal capacity.

In an opinion editorial published by The Sunday Independent, Phosa was highly critical of the ANC following the uproar during the opening of parliament earlier this month.

“Now we have a president, when we plead with him to go, stays. My plea remains: Please, for once, serve your people, and go. Go now. If you don’t, history will judge you to be the chief architect of the destruction of the ANC,” he wrote in his piece.

He also said “Good men cannot be silent in the face of evil. Silence is connivance. Therefore I speak,” wrote Phosa in his scathing criticism of the current crop of ANC leadership led by President Zuma.

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Edward has accused the former ANC treasurer-general of being bitter because he is aggrieved that there have been “changes” to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which he claims Phosa allegedly benefited from with foreign companies.

Phase 2 of the project has been marred by corruption allegations and alleged tender irregularities by the department of water and sanitation, which is being investigated by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

In his statement, Edward also says Phosa “thinks he will use money for ascending to the country’s top leadership” and challenged the ANC veteran to “show us his branch”.

“It is very disturbing and disgusting to listen to Mathews Phosa as you just think you have entered a room full of Afrikaners which he desires knowing his dealings with pre- and post-apartheid era.

“Having known him personally as a child during those days makes me want to vomit as I would have alarmed the ANC of what traitor he was to become post-apartheid [sic],” Zuma wrote.

Read the full statement below: