Tension apparent in ANC camp
2007-11-20 08:44
Port Elizabeth - Mosiuoa Lekota, ANC chairperson, makes up the ANC's rules on T-shirts, freedom songs and tribal tension "on the spur of the moment".
That was the accusation at the weekend of a furious Jacob Zuma, ANC deputy president, in response to Lekota, after interpreting Lekota's speech to the ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) as a direct attack on him.
Zuma apparently became "very personal" and hit back sharply at Lekota.
Although the clash is being interpreted by some as the final failure of attempts to reconcile President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma in the ANC leadership stakes, Die Burger has learnt that the provincial ANC chairpersons, under the leadership of Gauteng, planned to meet on Tuesday to discuss a possible last-ditch compromise.
'Very personal'
Zuma, who sat next to Lekota at the meeting, was unhappy about Lekota's public pronouncements on Zuma's supporters wearing T-shirts with the words "100% Zulu Boy" and singing freedom sings, without first approaching him personally on the matters.
But the leaders said Zuma had become "very personal" while responding to Lekota's speech.
The day before, Lekota dealt with the ANC's political review document which stated inter alia that the ANC's problems began two and a half years ago when Zuma had been fired as the country's deputy president by Mbeki.
It was said at the meeting that Mbeki and Zuma had recently discussed their differences, and agreed that the ANC's constitution did not provide for a deputy president to be fired.
This was seen as a weak link in the party's constitution.
The question of leaders clashing with the law and then describing it as a conspiracy, in which certain leaders were using State institutions against others, was also discussed.
Zuma apparently said at the meeting that he could neither confirm nor deny that there was a plot against him (by Mbeki and his followers).
He denied he had ever said so in public, although he did say so in court, which according to him he did solely in his own defence.
In the political review the NEC admitted among other things that the Mbeki and Zuma "camps" had not just been created by the media, but were evident at senior ANC levels.
The NEC had also considered direct intervention in the leadership struggle, "in order to promote unity," but came to the conclusion that the ANC conference next month should decide on new leaders by virtue of discussions and election, without the intervention of the NEC.