JOHANNESBURG: The youth arm of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday it will back Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former chair of the African Union and President Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife, to be the party’s next leader.
The Youth League joins the ANC Women’s League, the party’s military veterans and Zuma himself in endorsing Dlamini-Zuma ahead of a leadership contest in December where her main opponent is likely to be Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Dlamini-Zuma, a medical doctor who served as health minister under former president Nelson Mandela, has pledged to address the gaping inequality between blacks and whites that still exists 23 years after the end of apartheid.
Ramaphosa, a unionist-turned-billionaire businessman, is more investor friendly and has the support of powerful trade unions and sections of the top party leadership.
“Amongst the leadership qualities we are looking for is an uncompromising commitment to ‘radical economic transformation’,” the youth league said in a statement, echoing a phrase used frequently by Zuma and Dlamini-Zuma in recent weeks.
“They must expand economic participation to the majority of our people by breaking the stranglehold of white monopoly capital.”
This should include redistributing land from white elites to the black majority without compensation, providing free education, improving health care and launching a state bank to improve infrastructure, the youth league said.
The ANC has become increasingly divided over Zuma’s leadership in recent months due to a series of corruption scandals, a much-criticized cabinet reshuffle and a failure to handle an economy that has slipped into recession.
Zuma can remain head of state until an election 2019 but his opponents inside the ANC would like to remove him as president once he steps down as party leader, making it important for him to ensure a loyalist succeeds him.
The youth league endorsed Zuma loyalists for other top ANC positions, including the ANC’s leader of Mpumalanga province David Mabuza for deputy president and the party’s head of Free State province Ace Magashule for secretary general.
In separate development, South Africa’s main opposition party has removed former leader Helen Zille from all party leadership roles after a disciplinary hearing over a controversial tweet in which she praised aspects of colonialism.
Zille apologized “unreservedly” Tuesday for the tweet, which she posted in March.
Mmusi Maimane, current leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, said Zille “has agreed that it is in the best interests of the party for her to vacate her position on all decision-making structures.”
Zille told a news conference that she was “genuinely sorry” and that she realized that her comment was insensitive to South Africans who suffered under colonial oppression.
She said she “apologized unreservedly to the South African public who were offended by this tweet and my subsequent explanation of it.”
On March 16, Zille wrote: “For those claiming legacy of colonialism was only negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water.”
The tweet was followed by a series of comments justifying her outburst, including a comparison between South Africa and Singapore which she said had managed to build a strong state after the end of colonial rule.
The party then suspended her pending a disciplinary hearing and said Zille’s action had damaged the DA, which is still struggling to shake off its image as a “white” organization.
The colonialism comment had also threatened to divide the party itself.
Mmusi told journalists that he had been “personally angered by the tweet” and that the party had no room for those who seek to sow divisions.
Zille, 66, is credited with growing support for the DA among black people, whose votes helped it take control of key cities, including the administrative capital Pretoria and Johannesburg, from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) after local government elections last year.
Maimane said the party risked a protracted legal battle with Zille if the matter was not settled before the 2019 election.
Zille, who has a large twitter following, is no stranger to controversial tweets.
She will remain leader of the Western Cape province.
The ANC on Tuesday slammed Zille’s apology, calling it an “unadulterated defense of white supremacy and privilege.”
It accused Maimane of having “no real power.”
Maimane replaced Zille in 2015 as the DA’s first black leader.
The Youth League joins the ANC Women’s League, the party’s military veterans and Zuma himself in endorsing Dlamini-Zuma ahead of a leadership contest in December where her main opponent is likely to be Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Dlamini-Zuma, a medical doctor who served as health minister under former president Nelson Mandela, has pledged to address the gaping inequality between blacks and whites that still exists 23 years after the end of apartheid.
Ramaphosa, a unionist-turned-billionaire businessman, is more investor friendly and has the support of powerful trade unions and sections of the top party leadership.
“Amongst the leadership qualities we are looking for is an uncompromising commitment to ‘radical economic transformation’,” the youth league said in a statement, echoing a phrase used frequently by Zuma and Dlamini-Zuma in recent weeks.
“They must expand economic participation to the majority of our people by breaking the stranglehold of white monopoly capital.”
This should include redistributing land from white elites to the black majority without compensation, providing free education, improving health care and launching a state bank to improve infrastructure, the youth league said.
The ANC has become increasingly divided over Zuma’s leadership in recent months due to a series of corruption scandals, a much-criticized cabinet reshuffle and a failure to handle an economy that has slipped into recession.
Zuma can remain head of state until an election 2019 but his opponents inside the ANC would like to remove him as president once he steps down as party leader, making it important for him to ensure a loyalist succeeds him.
The youth league endorsed Zuma loyalists for other top ANC positions, including the ANC’s leader of Mpumalanga province David Mabuza for deputy president and the party’s head of Free State province Ace Magashule for secretary general.
In separate development, South Africa’s main opposition party has removed former leader Helen Zille from all party leadership roles after a disciplinary hearing over a controversial tweet in which she praised aspects of colonialism.
Zille apologized “unreservedly” Tuesday for the tweet, which she posted in March.
Mmusi Maimane, current leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, said Zille “has agreed that it is in the best interests of the party for her to vacate her position on all decision-making structures.”
Zille told a news conference that she was “genuinely sorry” and that she realized that her comment was insensitive to South Africans who suffered under colonial oppression.
She said she “apologized unreservedly to the South African public who were offended by this tweet and my subsequent explanation of it.”
On March 16, Zille wrote: “For those claiming legacy of colonialism was only negative, think of our independent judiciary, transport infrastructure, piped water.”
The tweet was followed by a series of comments justifying her outburst, including a comparison between South Africa and Singapore which she said had managed to build a strong state after the end of colonial rule.
The party then suspended her pending a disciplinary hearing and said Zille’s action had damaged the DA, which is still struggling to shake off its image as a “white” organization.
The colonialism comment had also threatened to divide the party itself.
Mmusi told journalists that he had been “personally angered by the tweet” and that the party had no room for those who seek to sow divisions.
Zille, 66, is credited with growing support for the DA among black people, whose votes helped it take control of key cities, including the administrative capital Pretoria and Johannesburg, from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) after local government elections last year.
Maimane said the party risked a protracted legal battle with Zille if the matter was not settled before the 2019 election.
Zille, who has a large twitter following, is no stranger to controversial tweets.
She will remain leader of the Western Cape province.
The ANC on Tuesday slammed Zille’s apology, calling it an “unadulterated defense of white supremacy and privilege.”
It accused Maimane of having “no real power.”
Maimane replaced Zille in 2015 as the DA’s first black leader.
