Zuma camp’s bid to purge ANC ‘rebels’

There is a push from Jacob Zuma supporters to get rid of “rebel” parliamentarians before the ANC’s December elective national conference.

This is to break their influence in the election and ensure they are unable to dig up more dirt about corruption, a political expert believes.

Political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni said there was panic within the Zuma camp about the December conference as they feared the influence of “rebels” such as Makhosi Khoza, Pravin Gordhan, Derek Hanekom and Mondli Gungubele in the run-up to, and during, the congress.

He said they were also worried that the dissenters could be influential in the portfolio committees to expose the corrupt activities at state-owned enterprises.

Fikeni said the Zuma supporters have realised that the longer these people were in places of power and influence, the more damage they could cause as there was a lot of corruption involving the Zuma faction.

“You have the December pressure and parliament pressure. They have to act now so that some of them do not have influence in the branches in December,” Fikeni said.

The analyst’s statement came as ANC MP Makhosi Khoza fired more salvos at President Zuma, accusing him of lacking moral capacity as a leader. In an interview with SABC, Khoza said Zuma took criticism against him personally and labelled his critics.

“President Zuma is a very humble man, but I do think he does have a very, very compromised moral reflective capacity. I don’t think the president is able to reflect morally,” Khoza said.

She argued that if the president had that moral reflective capacity, he should have stepped down to unite the party and for the sake of South Africa.Khoza criticised the ANC Women’s League for the way it handled the issue of Mduduzi Manana, former deputy minister for higher education and training.

She questioned why the league’s president trivialised the matter instead of taking Manana to task.

She said the ANCWL failed the late “Khwezi”, the woman who was at the centre of rape allegations against Zuma. She said the league defended Zuma instead of siding with the victim. – ericn@citizen.co.za