While former ANC president and Umkhonto we Sizwe Party leader Jacob Zuma continues to drum up support for the newly launched party, the ANC, which is currently preparing for its January 8 Statement, has vowed to act against him.
On Friday, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, while addressing the media on the sidelines of an ongoing ANC national executive committee (NEC) meeting in Mbombela, said the party would in time act “ideologically against Zuma”.
Mbalula said the ANC had no problem with people forming their own political parties, but those people should not use ANC assets when trying to launch their parties.
“People have the right to form political parties. However, if they do so by trying to illegally appropriate our assets, we will use the law to challenge them.
“Call it whatever you call it, but leave our assets. If you take our assets, legally we will challenge them and that is what we are going to do. We have given them a letter of demand. They have responded but we are moving ahead,” he said.
Mbalula added that the ANC would respond to Zuma’s membership status in due course.
This comes after Zuma said that in spite of campaigning for the MK party, he would remain a member of the ANC.
There have been calls for the ANC to suspend or even expel Zuma for his actions.
“We will at the appropriate time respond to the matter of former president Jacob Zuma’s membership, guided by the constitution of the ANC... At the right moment, the ANC NEC will reflect on the matters around former president Jacob Zuma, all statements he has made recently and his launch of a political party.
“We will not respond to the matter in snippets. We will at a later point give a comprehensive response, guided by the constitution of the ANC,“ Mbalula said on Friday.
Zuma, who is on a campaign trail, took his first weekend engagement to Jabavu, Soweto, where he was formally endorsed by the All African Alliance Movement (AAAM) as their preferred presidential candidate for the MK party.
The leader of the AAAM, Archbishop Chime Sophonia, said his party would vote with the MK party as part of a coalition in the upcoming elections.
On Saturday, Zuma took his campaign to the people of Piet Retief in eMkhondo, Mpumalanga, where he addressed throngs of eager MK party members.
During this campaign, Zuma accused the ANC of no longer serving and servicing the needs of South Africans, adding that the current ANC leaders had damaged the reputation of the ruling party while its leader served their own interests at the expense of those of the people.
“After watching things go bad in this country, and upon seeing our people being neglected, by the party that liberated them, and after seeing our government fail to govern properly even when we complain, it came to me that our leaders have failed to follow the path that we showed them.
“Instead of leading their people, they have used the party to further their own ends,” he said.
On Sunday, the unrepentant Zuma took his campaign to Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal where he addressed more supporters eager to join the MK party.
The Star