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Ramaphosa had faced in the weeks leading up to the ANC NEC meeting a barrage of public attacks through letters and social media posts from some party leaders questioning his legitimacy in the face of the ongoing legal case about his fundraising activities. CR17.
FILE: ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa at the party’s 108th anniversary celebration in Kimberley on January 11, 2020. Image: ANC / Twitter
JOHANNESBURG – The top six leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) have rallied around President Cyril Ramaphosa after what has been described as an intense meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC).
The meeting came after clashes between different factions of the party, and Ramaphosa said there was even an attack orchestrated by those who rejected his push to root out corruption in the state.
Although they sometimes contradicted each other during Monday’s unusual briefing, the top six ANC members supported President Ramaphosa.
Ramaphosa had faced in the weeks leading up to the ANC NEC meeting a barrage of public attacks through letters and social media posts from some party leaders questioning his legitimacy in the face of the ongoing legal case about his fundraising activities. CR17.
Yet yesterday even Secretary General Ace Magashule spoke enthusiastically about Ramaphosa despite being critical of him in the past and not supporting his rise to the presidency.
“As the president and the statement say, we have discussed the letter to the president. By the way, before the president’s letter was written, we communicated between the president and me because we maintain that interaction, we keep in touch.”
ANC President Gwede Mantashe criticized former President Jacob Zuma for being among those who wrote scathing letters to Ramaphosa after his remarks that the party needed to deal with the rot in its ranks.
Ramaphosa promised to use his position as the country’s president to make sure the National Tax Authority (NPA) was equipped to deal with corrupt individuals and criminals, even hinting at special COVID-19 prosecutions to speed up the process.
LOAD OF LEADERSHIP
Ramaphosa said he was not easy to insult and did not view Zuma’s criticism of his leadership in this light.
He was asked during a briefing about what measures the party would take against the former president.
In a letter that was drafted last week, Zuma described Ramaphosa’s approach to addressing corruption in the ANC as flawed and warned that it could destroy the party.
But Ramaphosa said the party would not stoop to the level of subjecting its predecessor to disciplinary action for a letter.
“The burden of leadership is that you have to be able to get members and others to express themselves. Sometimes you don’t like what they say and, as they say, ‘the highest treetops catch the fiercest wind’ and I drink is normal for the field “.
Meanwhile, Mantashe said it was not acceptable for an ANC official to attack his predecessor or successor.
“It is not done because there must be a particular relationship between a successor and a predecessor.”
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