Mabuza’s hidden Unity agenda disappoints CR, NDZ camps

He was previously that leader who would take the mic and lambaste all of President Jacob Zuma’s critics and was thought to be a member of the so-called Premier League but seems he has moved away from all of that.

Mpumalanga ANC chairman DD Mabuza is not backing down on his campaign for Unity and is prepared to “forge ahead” even if this doesn’t make him the deputy president.

Mabuza on Friday disappointed supporters of Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who had hoped he would endorse their candidates for the fiercely contested position of ANC president, especially the NDZ camp that features him as the deputy president.

Than endorsing people, Mabuza chose to pronounce Unity as the presidential candidate who must win and lead the ANC after December 2017.

“We are talking about the aspiration of our people here, not individuals,” he told journalists after the Mpumalanga PGC had concluded.

The outcomes showed of the 463 Mpumalanga branches, only 123 nominated Dlamini-Zuma, 117 Ramaphosa and 223 Unity.

Dlamini-Zuma had to be announced as the winner after electoral officials refused to recognise votes cast as Unity, saying Unity was not a person and the 223 votes were therefore counted as abstentions.

Mabuza pronounced he supported Unity than one of the two contestants who needed his determining province to emerge in December.

“Individuals don’t matter in the ANC,” he said.

SEE ALSO: Mabuza continues to keep country guessing ahead of 54th congress

“You have elevated the debate into something else as if the president of the ANC is God. Its not. The ANC is owned by its own members, not leadership,” Mabuza said to journalists at the Mbombela stadium.

“Leadership is just there to guide the movement but is not God. So as members of the ANC we are going to guard, jealously, this movement,” he said.

Mabuza wants the ANC to discuss and come out with a person suitable to lead it as opposed to leaders contesting each other through slates, which is cause for the gradual death of the ANC.

He wants this candidate to be elected from the floor in congress than being pre-determined by slates.

He said this whole thing that he is pushing is not himself “but about the aspirations of the people”.

“I was never born to be a Premier or chairperson, I’m here solely because of the will of the people and tomorrow there will be someone else. There was someone before me and there was someone before that someone, so individuals will come and go but the aspiration of the people remain,” Mabuza said.

“So [if I’m not elected] I’m going to join the rank and file and move with them and I’m not going to be unhappy with that. At any given time the ANC must be led and we will follow. I was not born to lead all the time and I’m not going to fight for any position. It’s members of the ANC who will elect me and I’ll accept. I’m saying let’s find consensus. As a province we are peculiar, we have preached unity, still standing on those words today,” he said.

Mabuza addressed the PGC on Friday and said there will always be different opinions but the experience that the ANC got during the struggle will help it “resolve whatever differences that we have in order to achieve unity and make us a very formidable force towards the attainment of our strategic objectives”.

SEE ALSO: Mabuza is sure he’ll be elected in December

“As I conclude I want to reiterate that for us as Mpumalanga the ANC comes first and no one, no individual is bigger than the ANC. We must emerge with a strong and united ANC irrespective of the conference outcomes. We should elect a leadership collective, brave enough to make tough decisions to better the lives of our people. For those who will emerge as elected leadership should be no adoption of a triumphalist posture at the expense of the broader organisational goals. We cannot afford any split from our ranks.  This is not about individuals but about the future of our country and generations and generations to come.

(edited by ZK)

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