The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) is still adamant that President Jacob Zuma should step down from office. As Sanco in Mogale City, we said after the elective conference that the ANC would give the newly elected ANC national executive committee (NEC) “space” to deal with the matter.
As the newly elected ANC NEC gears up for its first meeting of the year, calls to have Zuma removed from office have already spilled over into the new year.
While the civic movement would not abandon their call for Zuma to resign as president, it would wait for the party’s new leaders to confront the matter head-on when the meeting of the ANC NEC takes place.
This comes as the ANC’s mixed bag of top officials have a raft of political matters to deal with at the meeting.
Recent calls for Zuma to step down did not come as a result of the ANC’s two centre of power challenge, as calls to have Zuma removed from office predated Cyril Ramaphosa’s rise to power as ANC president.
The ANC veterans have been consistent in their approach and other organisations have been saying the same thing – we remain consistent. Civil society groups also stepped up pressure on Ramaphosa to produce an exit plant for Zuma in return for their endorsement of his bid for the ANC presidency.
The ANC’s top six officials could also pose a challenge for the party’s top NEC, as wounds from last year’s bruising succession battle could threaten the unity compact agreed to at the elective conference last month at Nasrec.
Delegates of the ANC in their attempts to do away with the slate politics, chose this leadership because divisions and factions are not the way to go. This leadership should be able to unite the ANC and the alliance. We are looking at them as one leadership collective given a mandate from conference. They must work together and be guided by the resolutions of the ANC.
The ANC’s resolve to amend Section 25 of the Constitution, to push for land expropriation without compensation, would receive the full backing of Sanco.
The resolution taken at the conference is very important for the country. If the ANC feels that the law is blocking the redistribution of land, Sanco will work towards ensuring that the ANC receives a majority in Parliament.
We need to change the law to make this possible.
