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'ANC must re-shuffle cabinet'
12/01/2008 21:43 - (SA)
Johannesburg - United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said on Saturday Jacob Zuma should negotiate with President Thabo Mbeki to create a "balanced" cabinet.
He said this was the only way the African National Congress's National Executive Committee could get the policies it wanted properly implemented.
"There is no such thing as one centre today, there are two. The frustration is going to be felt by the new NEC if these policies being pushed are not implemented by the Mbeki cabinet," said Holomisa speaking after Zuma gave the keynote address at the African National Congress' 96th anniversary celebrations in Pretoria.
Holomisa said he would advise the new National Executive Committee to work with Mbeki to re-shuffle the cabinet in order to remove non-performing cabinet members.
If NEC policies were not implemented by the Mbeki cabinet, "frustration is going to be felt by the new NEC". It would then just be the "same old rhetoric" heard since 1994.
Holomisa said a balanced cabinet needed to represent both factions of the party.
"If they follow that route, at least there will be stability in the government and the country; and the people would be optimistic that there is continuity."
Holomisa said should the NEC fail, they would see frustration from their members as well as the general public.
"This NEC....let them go to them (Mbeki's cabinet) with their new vision if they have one."
Earlier, alliance partners, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and SA Communist Party (SACP) reiterated their commitment to the ANC.
SACP spokesperson Malesela Maleka said in a statement that the 52nd ANC conference gave hope as it marked a shift from an alliance with the ANC over the past ten years that was "undesirable, stifling and clearly unsustainable".
"The SACP celebrates the reality that the ANC is turning 96 years on the 8th of January 2008, being a stronger, more democratic and revolutionary liberation movement, which we have been in alliance with for close to eight decades now," said Maleka.
Cosatu's national spokesperson, Patrick Craven said Cosatu encouraged its members to support the NEC stance of debating constitutional issues and the legitimacy of the judicial system in light of Zuma's pending court case.
Craven said, "we are proud to be associated with this gigantic movement that has led our people for more than 90 years".
"We come from a period that saw deep divisions within the alliance and of necessity it is a priority to go to the root causes that led to such divisions".
Craven said Cosatu was committed to the alliance and remained open to strengthening and unifying it.
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