Ramaphosa’s election was illegitimate, says Zuma

Former president Jacob Zuma has hit out at the ANC’s current leader, Cyril Ramaphosa,  saying his leadership is illegitimate as it was attained through the use of money, bypassing the democratic nature of the national conference.

On Sunday Zuma addressed a party gathering for the first time since he was released from jail and his parole period ended.

However, what was supposed to be a Oliver Tambo (the party’s longest serving president) memorial lecture, turned into a platform for the former president to poke holes at the current leadership — warning members not to repeat the same mistakes.

Zuma said the ANC has changed for the worse and urged members to liberate the party.

“I’ve been arrested in democracy. I fear no-one. I want the ANC that I joined,” he said.

“There were allegations made that Ramaphosa, who was contesting the presidency, used a lot of money to buy his position as president of the ANC.

“When this allegation was made, the figure was put at about a billion rand. In the Zondo commission [into state capture], Ramaphosa openly admitted that he did use money to buy the position but said it was not over R1bn but was just over R300m,” Zuma said.

He added that the use of money to buy positions meant that Ramaphosa was not elected properly and democratically. Zuma also blamed the entire membership of the ANC’s national executive committee for “keeping quiet while Ramaphosa abused processes”.

The former president also claimed that ahead of the upcoming conference, there has been what he dubbed “very obvious usage of money”.

“A number of comrades who have raised the matter after experiencing the usage of money, which has shocked many, do not seem to have a platform within their movement to raise these matters and correct them,” Zuma explained.

While Zuma criticised the secretary-general’s office for shortcomings that have affected the ANC, he also sharply called out the office of the treasurer-general for failing to come up with ways to raise money and pay salaries. Both offices are led by Paul Mashatile, the deputy president contender.

Speaking on the Phala Phala scandal, Zuma said party delegates must ask the president to account for the foreign currency allegedly stolen at his game farm.

“There are things being discussed out here of huge amounts of money found in beds. We don’t hear what the law says —  what kind of people don’t get pursued by law enforcement. Do we have positions that make people bigger than the law?” he asked.

Zuma also highlighted how Ramaphosa previously called the ANC the “accused number one” corrupt organisation in the country. He said the intention was to sabotage ANC chances at the polls.

“How could he possibly make such a statement and expect the ANC to win the local government elections?

“In actual fact, he was de-campaigning the ANC. We also need to guard against other emerging tendencies where membership of the ANC must now be determined by age,” Zuma explained.

He told ANC members that the time has come to “correct the way our organisation is being run” and called for delegates to elect the kind of leadership that will help the party achieve its objectives of liberating the people through the tried and tested policies of the ANC.

“The real ANC must be revived and must come back to the people, its rightful owners. That should be the mission of the 55th national conference,” Zuma added.