The people march against us, but we’re in denial, warns Sisulu

Speaking at a memorial service for the late Ahmed Kathrada in Rylands, Cape Town, on Wednesday night, Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu reportedly told attendees the current ANC leadership had become complacent.

ALSO READ: Gallery: Kathrada’s memorial service

IOL reports Sisulu said they needed to “regroup and rebuild the organisation” after describing how they had “complained and explained” after losing the City of Cape Town, and similarly “complained and found an excuse” after losing the Western Cape.

Further, she said that after losing three metros in 2016, “we did not heed the call of our people” and now that they are “marching against us” she said, “we are still in denial”.

She further was reported as saying that losing the 2019 elections would dishonour “all those people who gave us everything” and that to honour their stalwarts would be to “keep their flame burning in the hearts of our people”. She added that they needed to reignite the passion of leaders and fulfil every clause of the Freedom Charter.

It was further reported that she said Kathrada had been disillusioned with “all of us” and went “to his grave with a sore heart”.

She was quoted as saying the guidance he had attempted to give had been “scoffed at in public”.

“What did we do? We sat on our hands and did nothing,” she said, adding that, this time, they had to “do it right”, telling attendee Denis Goldberg, Kathrada’s fellow Rivonia Trialist, that they needed his wisdom, and further thanked him for everything he had done.

Sisulu’s comments at the memorial come after President Jacob Zuma earlier this month at the unveiling of the tombstone ceremony for the late minister of public service and administration, Collins Chabane, said there was “a new culture that we must persuade one another not to do: to use a funeral of a comrade; to use memorial services to fight our political battles”.

Political analyst professor Andre Duvenhage told The Citizen: “[Ahmed] Kathrada’s funeral was used to openly and strongly attack Zuma.”

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