That is not my ANC - Winnie

2010-01-24 13:10

Johannesburg - The power-struggle in the ANC-led alliance is "disgusting", the Sunday Independent reported ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as saying.

"That is not my ANC, where positions have become so important," Madikizela-Mandela said in an interview with Sunday newspaper.

"The bickering is all about leadership. It is all about positions."

"That is the disgusting debate we are having. That is how much we have lost the soul of the ANC," she said.

Madikizela-Mandela also said it would be detrimental to former president Nelson Mandela if he knew about the tensions in the ruling alliance.

"His children are sort of keeping him away from it all because I think that is what would quicken our journey to eternity," she said.

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema was her "product", Madikizela-Mandela further said.

"His rebellious attitude is part of the process of growing up. And he will make a great leader one day."

Cracks surfaced last year in the alliance between the ANC, the SA Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

Alliance leaders called for unity at the ANC's 98th anniversary celebrations in Kimberley in January.

"Much more needs to be done to improve the alliance relations at national and subnational levels," said ANC president Jacob Zuma at the time.

SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande echoed his words. "We want to say that at no stage of our history did we need to strengthen our alliance as we do now," he said.

At the same event Malema asserted the ANC's central position in the alliance and political power in the country.

Madikizela-Mandela called for ANC members to return to their roots.

People must remember that the ANC is bigger than any of us. The ANC leads. We will overcome this," she said.

- SAPA