'ANCYL must retract Zuma call'
2006-05-30 09:35
Johannesburg - The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) must retract its calls for the party's next president to be Jacob Zuma, ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe said on Monday.
Speaking on an SABC television show hosted by Tim Modise, Motlanthe said the Youth League ought to be guided by the policies of the party, which gave it the same status as each of the nine provinces in terms of nominations.
The next ANC leader is scheduled to be elected through party structures at the end of next year.
Defending President Thabo Mbeki's statement that a woman should be the next president, Motlanthe said he understood that Mbeki was "merely articulating the gender policy of the ANC".
Motlanthe also said the party would seek bilateral talks with its alliance partners, the SA Communist Party and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) on criticisms the two partners had made of the ruling party.
These talks, he said, would be to explain the ANC's policy position and "better understand where they are coming from".
They'd also be to strengthen the tripartite alliance.
Baseless pronouncements
On statements by Cosatu that it feared the ANC and South Africa were drifting towards a dictatorship and by the SACP that the presidency was over-centralised, Motlanthe said they had the right to analyse things publicly.
"No, we don't (expect them to refrain) but we are concerned about baseless pronouncements," he said.
Motlanthe said "succession" was never spoken of within the ANC. "In the ANC we speak of election of national leadership."
He said terms such as "the pro-Zuma camp" had been created by the media.
The party's deputy president, Jacob Zuma, was axed after being implicated in the fraud and corruption case of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik.
Zuma is to go on trial on related charges in July. He was recently acquitted on a charge of rape.
His supporters have been vocal about calling for him to be the next leader of the ANC and ultimately president of South Africa.
- SAPA