He says Zuma is very intelligent and, unlike others, he didn’t have to go to school to be so.
Mpumalanga ANC acting chair Mandla Ndlovu has used the ANC’s Thuma Mina outreach program in eMalahleni to throw a heap of praise on former leader Jacob Zuma, describing him as an “organic intellectual”.
Ndlovu addressed learners from four secondary schools in the eMalahleni area as well as students from the Nkangala Tvet College and the Tshwane University of Technology on Friday last week.
“I hear brothers are calling themselves organic intellectuals,” Ndlovu said while on stage at the Lynnville community hall.
“I don’t believe that here you have got organic intellectuals, that if you don’t go to school you will be an intellectual. No. In South Africa there is only one that I know who didn’t go to school but is an intellectual and that is President Jacob Zuma,” Ndlovu told the about 800 learners who had come to fill the hall to listen to him talk.
“And I don’t think that we will have another one in this country,” he said.
“He didn’t go to school in order to be an intellectual. That one is an organic intellectual and the rest must go to school in order to be intellectuals. He didn’t,” Ndlovu said.
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Ndlovu said Zuma was the only intellectual “that has never seen a face of a teacher and if you give him a platform Zuma will mesmerise you because he is an organic intellectual,” Ndlovu said to applause.
“He is the only one. The rest must go to school in order to be intellectuals,’ he said.
Ndlovu invited the students in order to encourage them to choose education above all. He said when they choose education they will have a bright future and be able to create the right careers for themselves.
Ndlovu wants to be the provincial chairman of the ANC and is currently on a province-wide campaign. The position was left by DD Mabuza who got elected as the deputy president on 18 December 2017.
“If you are educated you can marry the person of your choice because in terms of the pyramids of marriage you can’t go down. An ordinary person cannot marry a principal,” Ndlovu said.
“In short, you must go to acquire knowledge that will make you stand on your toes, qualified and you will then come back and create employment for yourself. It is not your choice to rely on social grants or go to school without food or uniform but it is your choice to be what you will be in the future,” he said.
He said the students should take advantage of the South African education system because it takes you from Grade R to University for free.
Later Ndlovu, who was accompanied by SASCO, ANCYL, ANC and government leaders donated to the pupils and the students some sanitary towels and school uniforms.
Nkangala ANCYL secretary Thabang Mathebula, former leader Mduduzi ‘Mswati’ Nkosi, eMalahleni mayor Linah Malatjie and JS Moroka mayor Thulare Madileng formed part of the event.
(edited by MLM)
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