ANC KZN draws line in sand over their stance on party's leadership

President Jacob Zuma is going nowhere and presidential hopeful Cyril Ramaphosa must not think that by virtue of being ANC deputy president, he will automatically ascend the throne.

That was the view of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal as it wrapped up its three-day provincial general council at the University of Zululand yesterday.

ANC provincial chairman Sihle Zikalala did not mince his words about Zuma.

"There is a convergence of forces who share a common short goal, which is to remove President Jacob Zuma and the ANC," he said.

Zikalala said he was confident in Zuma. He said the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal did not subscribe to the notion that the election of a deputy president implied that he was "automatically ordained to be a successor to the incumbent".

"If it was so, there would be no need for elections," he said.

He said party leaders should be driven by the quality of available leadership candidates.

"The assertion that a deputy is an inherent successor to the incumbent is devoid of scientific analysis of the tasks of the current phase of the National Development Plan and suitability of leadership quality and character to lead the movement in that phase of the struggle."

Although he did not pronounce on the preferred provincial candidate for the ANC presidency, it is an open secret that it is Zuma's ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Zuma has publicly anointed her as his successor ahead of Ramaphosa.

Zikalala said ANC leaders must be chosen on the "strength of their quality and not the position they hold".

He said the provincial leadership condemned corruption, state capture or looting and those involved should be punished.

It endorsed a national executive committee decision to establish a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.

Provincial ANC secretary Super Zuma said radical economic transformation was at the heart of changing economic ownership patterns in favour of blacks in general and Africans in particular.

The party was unanimous that land redistribution without compensation was the most "rational and progressive way towards restoring the dignity of the dispossessed poor masses of our people", Zuma said.

There was a call for unity of the ANC and its alliance partners to resolve their differing views.