I have not rejected Cde David Mabuza's proposal for unity in the ANC: ANC KZN Chairperson

5 December 2017

The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal would like to dismiss as conjecture and baseless propaganda the misleading media reports which suggest that the Chairperson in the province, Cde Sihle Zikalala had rejected a call made by the Mpumalanga Chairperson, Cde David Mabuza to foster unity in the ANC.

The ANC considers the deliberate distortion as a well calculated attempt to drive a wedge and create an atmosphere of mistrust between Cde Zikalala and Cde Mabuza. The story carried by the Mail & Guardian online titled “Zikalala attacked Mabuza on unity” deliberately distorted what Cde Zikalala said when he delivered his political report during the ANC Special Provincial General Council yesterday.

We strongly believe that the author of the article has deliberately decided to twist what the Chairperson said to suite his own agenda. Throughout his address, and in interviews subsequent to his address, Cde Zikalala never undermined the importance of unity but, in fact, came out strongly as one of its chief proponents.

In the interview with eNCA, wherein the Mail & Guardian journalist was also present, Cde Zikalala emphasised the need for unity and stressed that for the unity's sake, those who will not make it to the position of the President should be included as additional members.

During the address, Cde Zikalala said unity should be pure unity and should not be an exercise of replacing leading candidates, adding that there were those who were saying that Cde Nkosazane Dlamini-Zuma and Cde Cyril Ramaphosa should be put aside for the sake of unity and someone else be nominated. 

He described this as opportunistic and that unity should be based on including all groupings as opposed to removing others. With the above facts in place, and in the absence of a retraction or an apology of its fallacious reporting from the Mail & Guardian, the ANC in KZN quite justifiably believes that the newspaper reported on its PGC with an axe to grind.

Issued by Mdumiseni Ntuli, Provincial Spokesperson, ANC KZN, 5 December 2017