Zuma not too worried

2008-10-15 23:29

Johannesburg - ANC president Jacob Zuma says he is confident that the party will win the next election, despite losing leaders of the "previous generation".

This after former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa decided to quit the ANC and join forces with ex-defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota.

Lekota's membership of the ANC as well as that of his erstwhile deputy, Mluleki George was suspended earlier in the week.

Zuma said the ANC did not expect the grievances of Lekota and others to be resolved.

"They say: 'We are serving divorce papers, we are working on the process of calling a convention, and thereafter there will be the [new political] party'," Zuma said in an SABC television interview.

"So you can see, these people are not saying: 'We've got grievances. We want these grievances attended to'.

"So, naturally it's clear that probably the question of the [grievance] procedures we are going to follow are just going to be formalities."

Zuma said that the loss of a "few comrades" was a challenge the ANC had faced in the past and had to deal with responsibly.

Disappointed in Shilowa

Zuma did however say that he was disappointed in Shilowa.

"It is just disappointing that people who have been in the leadership, who have been leading people within the ANC, are not able to show leadership when they come across difficulties.

"Instead of confronting the difficulties, what they have been telling members to do, they are not able to do so. That is just disappointing."

Razia Khan, the regional head of Africa research at Standard Chartered Bank said that in the short-term the resignations from the party may be seen as a cause for volatility "because it alters the balance of power within the ANC at a time when markets are wondering if they do need to be concerned about policy uncertainty".

"In the longer term, the emergence of a viable opposition to the ANC might be seen as a positive development in terms of the maturing of South Africa's democratic process."

Investors are worried that Zuma and Motlanthe, strongly backed by the Communist Party and powerful trade unions, may tilt South Africa to the left.

Reuters reports that if Shilowa, one of the ANC's most respected officials and a favourite with the business community, were to become a major figure in a breakaway party, he may stick to the policies that won Mbeki praise from investors.

Shilowa gave the assurance that he would not seek any big changes in economic direction.

Western Cape meetings

Meanwhile, Zuma said that two separate ANC meetings - one addressed by Lekota and the other by Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan - held in the Western Cape at the weekend did not necessarily mean that the ANC was split down the middle.

"There might be specific issues in the Western Cape that makes that province look in a particular way. I don't think you could have found the same situation repeating itself in each and every province."

Even before Lekota went to the Western Cape, when the provincial conference was held recently, there were people protesting and saying they were unhappy.

"So it was not just [Lekota]."

This indicated the problems of the Western Cape in a particular way.

"I think it could not be assumed that this is what is happening throughout the country in all the provinces."

While he was concerned about "what is happening", Zuma said the crowds of people attending meetings held by Lekota in the Western and Eastern Cape did not necessarily mean all those present agreed with what he had to say.

Opposition parties angered

Asked about what appeared to be a "challenge" by former president Thabo Mbeki to debate his recall by the ANC in a public platform, Zuma said he did not think it was an invitation he would accept.

"I don't think if there were issues that former president Mbeki thought needed to be discussed and debated, we need to discuss that in the open. Because the reasons that might have led the ANC national executive committee to recall Mbeki, they are ANC reasons.

"I don't think that, to me, that is an attractive kind of proposal, because it says let us go and discuss matters, which I think are matters we need to discuss between the two of us, or within the organisation."

The Independent Democrats and the Democratic Alliance both criticised the SABC's decision to give Zuma a lengthy television interview, the broadcaster reported.

ID leader Patricia de Lille said it was "unacceptable and an abuse of the public broadcaster six months before the general elections".

She said Zuma was a political party leader and not president of the country, and the same opportunity should be extended to all political party leaders.

The DA called the interview a propaganda exercise.

In the broadcaster's defence, SABC head of news Snuki Zikalala said the interview was planned to give Zuma an opportunity to explain how the ANC was dealing with the split in the party. He said it was a response to many calls and letters from interested viewers. - SAPA, Reuters

- SAPA