President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on the governing ANC, which he leads, to be united after the unrest that claimed the lives of at least 200 people in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng following former president Jacob Zuma’s incarceration.
He said this was the time the organisation needed to close ranks and provide leadership.
“We need to give practical support to our people, to small businesses that have lost everything, and to working people in townships and rural areas. These are matters we are giving active consideration, and we will be able to address them,” he said in his keynote address at the virtual Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture on Sunday.
He said the protests by alleged Zuma supporters were a “deliberate, co-ordinated, well-planned attack on our democracy, economy and on our people’s livelihoods”.
“President Mandela would remind us that despite the challenges we face we should keep our heads pointed towards the sun, and keep our feet pointed forward. He would encourage us not to give up and despair,” said Ramaphosa.
He called for unity among the people, saying: “From the ANC’s point of view: we must make sure the ANC remains united, the ANC should be able to renew itself, and [to] build and strengthen its structures to be vibrant, because the strength and unity of ANC has a huge bearing on our country as a whole.”
Zuma’s supporters had warned in the days preceding to his incarceration that SA would descend into a civil war if he was jailed and that the country would be torn apart.
Suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, who has been at loggerheads with Ramaphosa over dealing with members facing corruption allegations, is one of Zuma’s staunch supporters and has criticised the Constitutional Court for having “jumped” to a decision to jail Zuma before a ruling was made on the former president’s bid to have the state capture commission chair, deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo, replaced.
“The ANC leads society, but in order for it to lead society, it must be united. But it must also be united on principles and it must also address the failures, misdeeds that have often prevailed in the past,” said Ramaphosa.
“This renewal must mean that the ANC must end patronage, corruption in all its manifestations, and we must develop committed and capable cadres, who are fit for purposes, to serve people with integrity, humility and distinction.”
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