Cele to ANC: 'Time to get real'

ANC heavyweight Bheki Cele has said the ruling party does not have the endorsement of Jesus Christ and that hubris in the run-up to the 2019 general election would result in the party's downfall.

Cele, speaking to hundreds at a SA National Civic Organisation event in Esikhawini, on the KwaZulu-Natal north coast on Monday, said the party was not ordained by God and would need divine intervention to cling to power.

"We [the ANC] own nobody ... we are not ordained by anybody to rule until Jesus comes back," he said.

President Jacob Zuma has famously said that the ANC would rule until Jesus' second coming.

"We will continue to rule only if we are humble," Cele added.

"The ANC is losing votes because the people say we are distant, arrogant, corrupt and wrought with factionalism."

He used the platform to take aim at presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, her former husband's tainted relationship with the Guptas and the factionalism eroding the party's support base.

"We are going to elect a president for the ANC, we have already elected a president for the [ANC] women's league," he said to applause.

The former national police commissioner also set his sights on the Guptas,saying no one had been held accountable for the Waterkloof Air Force Base debacle.

In 2013 a private jet chartered by the Gupta family and carrying its guests to a wedding landed at the base.

"I was police commissioner yet I have never landed at a military base but guests to a weddingland at our bases and are escorted by blue-lights [police vehicles]," he said.

"These people came, got married and did not go back home," Cele said angrily.

Hemade a veiled reference to his support of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency.

"I do not support anyone because I have not nominated anyone yet. I support the ANC in following the tradition of electing deputy presidents [to replace presidents]," he said.