Mokonyane warns ANC supporters not to be confused by Zuma's MK party

ANC supporters should not be confused by the new uMkhonto weSizwe party that claims to be the ANC — because it is not. 

That's according to the ANC’s first deputy secretary-general, Nomvula Mokonyane, who told party supporters in Hazyview, Mpumalanga, on Wednesday the ANC remains black, green and gold. 

Her comments come after the new party, backed by former president Jacob Zuma, claimed to have been formed to fix the ANC. 

Mokonyane, a known Zuma ally, has spoken out against MK, saying if it and its backers were really ANC they would have remained in the party. 

“We are here in Mpumalanga to talk about ANC programmes and not other people, but what’s important for us is to say, be careful, there will be people who will come here claiming to be ANC and [ask for our vote],” said Mokonyane. 

“Whoever is ANC will remain in the ANC. Whoever is in the ANC will develop the community on ANC programmes.”

Without mentioning names, she said though there was infighting in the ANC, Zuma and other MK defectors should not have left the ruling party. Instead, they should have stayed and resolved issues in the party. 

“We all agree we’ve had our issues, we’ve made mistakes and that’s why we are talking about renewal and unity. You can’t talk about renewal if there’s nothing to renew, you renew because you know there are problems.

“You can’t talk about unity because we’ve fought here at home but when there’s problems at home you don’t leave, you stay at home and discuss your issues, no-one leaves their home,” she said to a small crowd of ANC supporters at a local school. 

In many of his addresses, Zuma has said that he doesn’t recognise the ANC of Cyril Ramaphosa and so has put his weight behind the new party. 

Mokonyane said that as far as she was concerned the ANC was led by Ramaphosa, who will be the face of its election campaign. 

“We remain here, we will continue being ANC and being led by Ramaphosa. Even in the elections we’ve decided that the president of the ANC will be the president of the country, so we know that the face of our elections will the president of the ANC,” said Mokonyane.

Mokonyane earlier told the media that Zuma had made his choice and must be given space to express himself — but that “we must protect what remains of the African National Congress”. 

She said she would, in the national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Thursday, express her views about the tit-for-tat between the party’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula and national chair Gwede Mantashe. 

“We have a meeting of the NEC tomorrow, I will ventilate my views. This morning we exchanged views as officials and I think that suffices,” said Mokonyane. 

“Expressing my personal views to the media undermines what one stands for — organisational discipline. Whether good or bad, whether exciting, this is not an issue of the ANC. The issue of the ANC is to create a platform to present our January 8 statement to deal with issues of unity, renewal and work for an election victory.”

TimesLIVE