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By Bongani Hans 
13h ago
Durban – The alleged use of money at the ANC’s elective national conference in Nasrec three years ago robbed the party of the opportunity to implement radical economic transformation (RET) and free education, says former President Jacob Zuma.
Zuma said it was unfortunate that the money was used to allege the conference that saw Cyril Ramaphosa emerge as party president. He had contested Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for the hotly contested presidency to succeed Zuma.
“That people were bought is no longer just what people saw at the time, it is what has come to light as evidence. The amount of money that came out is a reality.
“We are not just speculating, there are figures, there are accounts and there is everything that was there,” he said.
Zuma was talking to his son Duduzane in the second part of the Zoom Zuma dialogue they have posted on YouTube.
He was not the first ANC leader to make accusations that the outcome of the conference was influenced by money. Former Prime Minister Tokyo Sexwale and Meshack Radebe, a former speaker of the KwaZulu-Natal parliament, was among those who had made similar allegations in the past.
“Nasrec, instead of helping us move forward, left scars that would take a long time to heal,” said Zuma.
It was the first time that Zuma expressed his feelings about the outcome of the conference.
He said that, in addition to being one of the delegates, he had gone to the conference to say goodbye as ANC president and also to present key issues that he had identified as important ANC policy issues to be implemented.
He mentioned that such topics include RET, free education and land.
“These critical and cardinal problems were the problems that the ANC would have said that here is the program to implement.
“But I think the attitude towards that from then on would tell you that the ANC was somewhat different,” he said.
He alleged that delegates were being intimidated by the hunger that “if you don’t do this.”
He said he was offended when the new ANC leadership under Ramaphosa decided to remove him as state president 18 months before the end of his term.
“They said it was too late, you must go now,” he said.
Former President Thabo Mbeki was also removed in similar circumstances when he was defeated at Polokwane in 2007.
He was replaced by then-ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe in September 2008, just eight months before his term ended.
Zuma described his ax as the first time he remembered “the president who had done absolutely nothing (wrong).”
“I think those were the very serious shots that were fired after the ANC Nasrec conference.
“It was clear that here we were faced with a new type of situation that did not contemplate the principles, did not respect the ANC membership that had chosen people,” said Zuma.
When Duduzane asked his father if his expression was not influenced by bitterness as a result of the loss of Dlamini Zuma, Zuma said that anyone who made that suggestion would not have come from South Africa.
“The fact that the money was the largest, as you saw, is reality, it is not sour grapes, it is reality,” said Zuma.
Political Bureau
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