Dullah Omar’s family has asked the ANC’s national executive committee that his name be removed from the ANC Cape Town Metro region with immediate effect, following the region’s move to attend a march in support of President Jacob Zuma.
The pro-Zuma march will take place to coincide with the motion of no confidence in Zuma, scheduled for Tuesday.
The region is currently named after Omar, an anti-apartheid activist and former minister of justice and of transport, who died in 2004.
His family issued a statement on Friday saying they had written to the NEC to request the removal of his name from the branch, and that his and their family’s name be disassociated from the planned march on August 8.
The family put it on the record that they were never consulted in the renaming of the region after him. They thought it was "churlish" to take it up with the region at the time but in hindsight they think they should have.
"We acknowledge and appreciate the intentions of those who named the region after Dullah Omar as a way of honouring his memory and legacy. Notwithstanding these intentions, we have decided that the time to make this statement has arrived, in view of what has happened since then and which has drastically undermined and weakened the African National Congress and the struggle for a just, nonracial, nonsexist and egalitarian society," the family said.
They made it clear that ANC leaders on all levels had "dropped the ball", and were more interested in themselves and their own interests than in serving the interests of the people of SA. Factionalism, greed and anti-democratic processes had taken root, they said.
Corruption and poor governance were rife, and leaders acted with arrogance and impunity.
"Their behaviour has let many down and is destroying the ANC and the country," the statement read.
They said Omar was a man of "integrity, honesty and humility", and was not diverted from doing what was necessary to make SA a more just, equal and democratic country.
"No inducement of position, power or personal enrichment was powerful enough to change him.
"This contrasts sharply with the behaviour and actions in recent years of many ANC leaders and members up to and including President Jacob Zuma. There is no need to mention the litany of transgressions by ANC leaders and members — social activists, progressive structures and the media have done this sufficiently," the family said.
They said Omar, like many ANC leaders, members and many other people had done, would not have behaved in the same manner or have condoned it.
"Neither he, nor his name, should ever be associated with justifying the reprehensible or defending the indefensible. As a family, we cannot allow him to be undermined simply because of his absence," the family said.
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