RET camp plotting Jacob Zuma’s ANC top 6 comeback

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RET camp wants Jacob Zuma's ANC top 6 comeback
STILL POPULAR: As Africa's oldest liberation movement heads towards a historic 55th national conference, lobbyists in the party's RET camp believe the personable former leader still has a lot to contribute to the ANC. PICTURE BY Leon Sadiki

The campaign is being run on various social media platforms and looks like it’s gaining momentum.


The RET camp appears to be lobbying former President Jacob Zuma’s ANC top 6 comeback as it battles to find suitable candidates who will contest posts against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s slate ahead of the December conference.

The camp believes if Zuma can return to fill the position of national chairperson that can “rescue the ANC”.

The RET camp was dislodged by Ramaphosa’s camp when its presidential candidate and secretary-general Ace Magashule was suspended last year for refusing to step-aside after he was arrested and charged with corruption concerning a dodgy R250-million asbestos tender in the Free State.

The state argues that Magashule failed to report corruption while he was Premier when the tenderpreneur abandoned the project to remove asbestos roofing but got paid around R250-million.

The ANC won’t allow Magashule to contest until his suspension is uplifted and that uplifting can seemingly happen after the December congress.

ALSO SEE: ANC in Mpumalanga not happy with Ace Magashule stepping aside

The RET camp made its cards known a week ago when it posted a campaign poster on Twitter bearing Zuma as the man they feel should contest the national chairperson position.

The poster was published by the Twitter handle @ZumaIsFree on 14 March 2022 at 9h45 morning and followers seem to agree with it.

“The man is really needed to rescue the ANC that Cyril is destroying,” one user, @Hosea08 said in his reply to the ZumaIsFree poster.

RET camp wants Jacob Zuma's ANC top 6 comeback
The RET camp in the ANC is preparing to lobby for the return of former president Jacob Zuma to the ranks of the party’s top 6. PIC Twitter

The camp is currently hard at work looking for suitable candidates to contest Ramaphosa’s slate at the party’s 55th national elective congress in December 2022.

Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu, who would have been a suitable candidate for the RET camp’s presidential post, doesn’t seem to convince the group and sources inside the group say they don’t trust her.

ALSO SEE: Ace Magashule confirms he eyes post of ANC President

“She can turn against us after we have voted for her. Her letter attacking the judiciary was just a populist talk and it doesn’t convince,” a senior leader in the RET camp said when speaking to the 013NEWS reporter on 8 January 2022 after Sisulu’s controversial letter, Who’s Law Is It Anyway, was published.

ALSO SEE: Peter Nyoni to support DD Mabuza as Cyril Ramaphosa’s deputy again

Other sources in the RET camp say they don’t have a problem with the position of President but then they plan to put a number of RET leaders to fill the majority of top 6 and NEC posts but it’s still not clear who are those candidates that they plan to insert.

If the whole plan wins, this will be the second time that Zuma becomes ANC national chairperson.

At the party’s 49th conference in December 1994 in Bloemfontein, Zuma was elected national chairperson, Nelson Mandela as President, Thabo Mbeki (deputy president), Cyril Ramaphosa (secretary-general), Cheryl Carolus (deputy secretary-general) and Makhenkesi Stofile as treasurer-general

(edited by ZK)
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