Johannesburg - Fired ANC staffer and suspended spokesperson of the disbanded uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association (MKVA), Carl Niehaus claims calls for President Cyril Ramaphosa to serve a second term as party leader amount to “ill-discipline”.
Niehaus was responding to ANC Limpopo provincial chairperson and premier Stan Mathabatha, who during the party’s 110th anniversary celebrations on Saturday publicly backed Ramaphosa to secure a second term.
”They are trying to blackmail anyone with different views into accepting that it is either an unopposed Ramaphosa or the ANC will be destroyed,” Niehaus said.
According to Niehaus, Ramaphosa’s continuation as president will spell the death knell of the ANC and destroy the country.
”The continuation of Ramaphosa as president is certainly not the way to save the ANC, it is the most certain way to destroy the ANC. Ramaphosa is the most disastrous president that the ANC has had in the 110 years of our existence,” he said.
Niehaus cited what he called the “terrible results” of last year’s local government elections, which saw the ANC reduce its support to a mere 46.4% of the vote. as confirmation of his assessment.
”The alien manner in which he, and his supporters conducted themselves, abusing the longstanding traditions of the ANC that the January 8 celebrations must not be abused for nominations and personal ambitions, only proved that again this past weekend,” he said.
Niehaus said a new ANC president must be democratically elected through its internal organisational processes which must be free from bribes and vote buying.
He added that Ramaphosa will be challenged and must be replaced as ANC president.
”Anything else is an utter nightmare for the continuing survival of the ANC as a liberation movement, and a fate too ghastly to contemplate,” Niehaus said.
Mathabatha said ANC regions in Limpopo had put their weight behind Ramaphosa and supported his continued leadership of the party.
He was supported by ANC Northern Cape provincial secretary Deshi Ngxanga, who said there had been important achievements since Ramaphosa became the country’s president.
POLITICAL BUREAU