'We want people like Zuma'

2009-01-09 22:39

Durban - No court decision will stop the African National Congress from dropping its front-runner Jacob Zuma as their presidential candidate for the 2009 general elections.

"Zuma is our candidate for president of South Africa before, during and after the elections and nothing that happens in any court will change that," the party's KwaZulu-Natal chairperson Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Friday.

He was addressing hundreds of delegates at the country's first-held provincial list conference in Durban's Greyville area.

"The ANC goes to election under Zuma and that's what was decided at Polokwane."

Mkhize said the party needed people with humility, dedication and efficiency to lead them to election victory.

"We want people like this to be elected... because the ANC has the best team to compete with what the opposition puts forward," he said in his opening address.

"We are going into the elections very confident because there's a contribution we can make to changing the lives of our people."

The face of the ANC

By mid-afternoon at least 821 delegates had queued at the DLI hall to vote for people to represent the party in the provincial legislature and national Parliament.

"We are voting for the face of the ANC... We come here to choose the leaders we want to deploy," said Mkhize.

Delegates were told to choose 200 candidates for the provincial legislature and 200 for Parliament.

Once voting had taken place, the provincial list committee would go over the list to ensure certain requirements were met, to ensure balance.

These included 50% female representation on the list, inclusion of both young and old, racial balance and geographical spread.

The results were expected to be released to the public at the national conference on January 25.

Only two objections were received for the lists and both were found to be invalid.

Meanwhile, Mkhize said the ANC was on a mission to improve the lives of the people they served.

"We must show the people what the ANC is about, show them we are about fighting crime, fighting poverty."

Speaking about party defectors, Mkhize said those who left the party would be regarded as opposition, along with the other 150 registered political parties.

"Anyone who's wanting to go to another party are welcome to... but you will be our opposition."

Police earlier said security would be tightened for the event, due to disruptions by rival political groups at previous meetings. There were, however, no police officers present at Friday's event. Mkhize said there was no need for such security.

"This is the ANC, we don't need security. The ANC does not disrupt and the ANC does not get disrupted. The ANC is a peaceful group."

He said their members remained disciplined and he hoped no party would "provoke them".

'No serious tension'

The province's deputy chair Willies Mchunu said they were happy that the conference had run smoothly and added that no tensions had been reported at any of the branches.

"We are not aware of any branch where there had been serious tensions related to the elections. If there was tension, the list committee would have intervened," he said.

Before voting, Mkhize urged delegates to conduct the process with integrity to "reflect the good spirit of the ANC".

The party's provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu said the process of nominating candidates started a long time ago at branch level.

"[A]nd today we are consolidating lists. Once we have consolidated all lists from branches, we will vote and come up with one list before the end of today's (Friday) conference."

- SAPA