by 013NEWS Reporter | Feb 26, 2018 | Politics
He delivered his State of the Province Address (Sopa), speaking job creation, unity and the forging of a better future for all.
ANC deputy president DD Mabuza has showered former leader Jacob Zuma with praises, saying without him South Africa was going to form part of the many failed states across the world.
Mabuza delivered the State of the Nation Address (Sopa) in his capacity as the Premier of Mpumalanga on Friday (23 Feb).
He described the period of transferring power from Zuma to current leader Cyril Ramaphosa as “a difficult period for all South Africans”.
Under pressure following an NEC decision recalling him, an emotional Zuma resigned on the night of 14 February 2018, saying the violence that occurred outside Luthuli House on 5 February 2018, where his supporters and those of Ramaphosa clashed, disturbed him.
He said he would not allow blood and ANC division to occur in his name.
Mabuza said Zuma played a very important role and was in the forefront in ending the political conflicts between the ANC and IFP of the early 1990s in KZN.
Of the transfer of power from Zuma to Ramaphosa, Mabuza said: “We need to appreciate that out of all the choices we could have made, collectively and individually, thepath we have chosen will lead us to a brighter future.
“These events and decisions we made are a demonstration of a maturing democracy andthe supremacy of democratic governance,” he said.
Mabuza told the legislature he salutes Zuma’s courage and his patriotic spirit “that prevailed on him to respond in the positive manner that he did”.
“He proved to all of us, that his personal circumstance and challenges he faced are subservient to the wishes of the ANC as a legitimate representative of the people,” Mabuza said.
Former President Jacob Zuma. PIC BBC.
“His selfless contribution in the struggle for our freedom, will remain ingrained in the history books of the revolutionary struggle against colonialism and oppression.
“We thank him for his service to our country. We are grateful for his peace-building skills that he had put to great use during the darkest period of our history. He was at the forefront in ending political conflict and violence that ravaged KwaZulu-Natal.
“Without his contribution, we could have easily become a permanent war-zone and a statistic on a list of failed states,” he said.
“We are confident that he will avail himself in the near future to the service of our country in various capacities,” said Mabuza.
(edited by ZK)
Send tips [email protected]
by 013NEWS Reporter | Jun 19, 2017 | Featured, News, Politics
He says it occurs for the first time in history that alliance partners call for an ANC president to step down.
Mpumalanga ANC leader David Mabuza has taken his campaign for unity to a greater height using the policy conference to admit the house is falling apart.
Mabuza addressed the ANC provincial policy conference held at the Mbombela stadium on Saturday and said if the ANC-led mass democratic movement failed to unite it will not see the light of day.
The provincial policy conference was attended by all branch executive committee members, regional and alliance leaders as well as municipal deployees.
He said the alliance partners were calling for President Jacob Zuma to step down but they didn’t do this through thorough engagement with the structures, “this is done in the media”.
RELATED: Mabuza not impressed by Bonakele Majuba’s no-show
“If you say to the ANC, as an alliance partner, that Jacob Zuma must step down, what do you want the ANC to do? Knowing very well that Jacob Zuma was elected by branches of the ANC,” Mabuza said.
“No one anywhere can call for the head of the ANC president except for the branches of the ANC,” Mabuza said to thunderous applause.
“We are at our weakest. We are at our weakest,” he said while on stage.
In April 2017, Cosatu called for Zuma to resign as both ANC and government leader, saying it has lost confidence in him as a person capable of uniting the movement.
This followed a cabinet reshuffle that saw finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas sacked and replaced by Melusi Gigaba and Sfiso Buthelezi.
The SACP also wants Zuma to resign, with SANCO endorsing his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa to succeed him.
“The unity and cohesion of the alliance is at its weakest. It’s at its weakest,” Mabuza said.
He said the national congress in December 2017 is the right platform to tell the President to step down.
He said in December 2017 Zuma will step down as ANC president and will do so in 2019 as South Africa’s president.
But he warned the 6000 plus delegates that when Zuma leaves “our problems will remain,” adding Zuma only contributes 1% of the problems “and the rest of the problems we’re all participants”.
SEE ALSO: Acting Premier Gillion Mashego to address investor conference
“We have forgotten our duties as the ANC together with the alliance to mobilise society into our programs of transforming society, busy fighting one another.
“And this has affected the movement. If still we want to lead this country and transform society for the better we must understand that that requires a united revolutionary movement. That is the only instrument you can have to transform society, if you don’t have that instrument you must just forget, you can sing nice slogans but it will be the end of you,” he said.
(edited by MLM)
Send tips to [email protected]
by 013NEWS Reporter | May 3, 2017 | Videos
The beleaguered news channel reported that President Jacob Zuma was forced to go to the Cosatu event.
Gupta-owned ANN7 has been slammed for reporting that deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, national secretary Gwede Mantashe and national treasurer Zweli Mkhize forced President Jacob Zuma to attend the Cosatu event on May Day.
Zuma was booed and heckled by Cosatu members during the event in Mangaung, resulting to Cosatu cancelling the event and all speeches.
The party said the deployment to the event was a collective decision taken by all national officials.
“Further, it was a decision taken by the national officials fully aware of the potential for heckling,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
LATEST: Pupils killed in taxi crash to be buried the coming weekend
ANN7 said Zuma was “pushed” by the three leaders but the ANC rejected this, saying such reports, “devoid of truth”, were typical of ANN7.
Cosatu earlier this year took the resolution that Zuma should step down and two of its affiliates said allowing him to address workers would send a conflicting message.
The federation wants Ramaphosa to take over as Zuma’s successor and is opposed to the bid of an ANC lobby group linked to Zuma – the so-called Premier League – wanting Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to succeed the president.
“Members of the media have a responsibility to report the news accurately, factually and objectively.
“ANN7 however seems determined to manufacture false consensus, sharpening contradictions and deepening fissures in the ANC.
“The station effectively acts as a mouthpiece of the factional divisions that plague the African National Congress, consistently showing itself as being intent on driving wedges within the organisation and pitting comrade against comrade,” the ANC statement read.
(edited by MLM)
Send tips to [email protected]
by 013NEWS Reporter | Apr 13, 2017 | Featured, News
Authorities will be in full force on this Easter weekend and weather experts have warned of a chilly weather in some parts of country.
Political parties in the Mpumalanga province have wished all South Africans a very blessed and joyous Easter weekend.
The ANC in the Mpumalanga province said they remain concerned about the number of fatalities occurring every year during this time.
“We therefore call upon everyone to observe traffic rules, avoid speeding and commuters to be vigilant of drunk drivers and un-roadworthy vehicles transporting our people to their different destinations of worship,” spokeswoman Sasekani Manzini said.
“We request those who will be lowering their heads in supplication to our Messiah this weekend, to remember the ANC in their prayers and pray for its maximum unity and improved ability to service the people of South Africa,” said Manzini.
SEE ALSO: DA wishes all a safe, joyous Easter
The Economic Freedom Fighters said they request that road-users behave as they travel from their various homes to churches and were urging all fighters to establish crime combating units to protect communities from the criminals who will want to use the busy weekend to target their innocent preys.
“We also urge community members in particular the youth to also conduct themselves responsible and avoid excessive drinking and use of drugs and the carrying of dangerous weapons,” spokesman Collen Sedibe said.
“The EFF also urges the police and traffic officers to be visible in all crime spots and high accident zone in order to minimise contact crimes and gruesome car accidents,” said Sedibe.
The Bushbuckridge Resident Association asked those who will be commemorating the death of Jesus Christ to remember political parties in their prayers.
“We ask them to pray for us as we all know that these days in South Africa the situation is very bad,” acting secretary Johannes Ndlovu said.
“We wish that church-goers drive safely, have a blessed journey and they must be patient with one another and ensure everywhere they are safe,” Ndlovu said.
(edited by MLM)
Send tips to [email protected]
by 013NEWS Reporter | Sep 28, 2016 | Business, Featured, News, Politics
Delegates who attended the provincial economic summit over the weekend laughed a lot as the funny Mpumalanga Premier was tackling issues on the podium.
David Mabuza, tipped to be the next deputy president of the ANC when it holds its national elective congress next year, clearly is personable and commands a lot of authoritative influence over provincial and regional leaders of the ANC and its alliance partners in the Mpumalanga province.
He is referred to as “Zuma’s son” in ANC corridors and the “boss of the Premier League”.
Sources within the ANC over the weekend told 013NEWS that Mabuza was the only provincial leader to be given an ANC branded helicopter for the local government elections campaigns and that ‘signified’ he was now the kingmaker.
“He has been given the powers by Zuma to decide who takes charge after him. DD can now decide whether he wants to be the president or deputy president,” a source in the provincial executive committee of the ANC told 013NEWS on Saturday morning before going into the summit’s commissions.
“His team nationally is very strong and most members of the NEC are aware,” he said.
The chopper, written on the side, ‘Chairperson DD Mabuza is here’, was used by him to “save time and reach everywhere in one day”.
SEE ALSO: Rising unemployment worries Mabuza – FULL TEXT
At the start of the provincial economic summit on Friday evening in Mbombela’s Nutting House lodge, provincial alliance leaders made presentations on behalf of the organisations they lead and Cosatu provincial deputy chairman Oupa Bodibe called on the alliance economic summit to take resolutions to ‘shut down’ the business of the Umbhaba Banana Estate owner, Roy Plath, who fired 300 banana farm workers late last year.
“Organising workers means a commitment must be made that we cannot tolerate the obstructions of the organisation of workers. Workers must be organised. Unlike the meeting I come from in Tonga today where those workers have been staying at home for the past 11 months, without any income, without any food and denied the right to a trade union or an opinion,” Bodibe told delegates.
“So when I left that meeting they said to me I must request this summit that Mpumalanga province must urge the national government to shut down the Umbhaba estate. Remember the owner has refused to meet the Premier, has refused to meet Cosatu and all stake-holders in our society ,” he said.
But when Mabuza took to the stage to address the summit, he said: “Listening to my partners here who have presented the problems, they say ‘this summit must do this, this summit must do that’. Just to correct there, comrades were supposed to say ‘we must do this’ because no one else will come with solutions other than all of us”.
“Now as the alliance we have fought hand in hand to usher in this political freedom that we are enjoying today, we pride ourselves that we have got a Constitution, we have got a state, we have got Constitutional institutions that were put in place, however we know we have not fulfilled certain places of our National Democratic Revolution, which is about economic freedom,” Mabuza said to a highly attentive summit attended by mayors, ministers, national and provincial executive committee members of alliance partners, media and businesspeople.
He then took a swipe at both credit rating agencies for “watching only South Africa” and the SACP for wanting to leave the alliance, asking “where are you going during this difficult time?”, having delegates in stitches.
“The challenges provincially and nationally include the sluggish economic growth leading to slow employment opportunities to our people and in certain areas we have lost jobs,” Mabuza said.
“The poverty level has grown, the inequality gap has grown and despite all the efforts to try and better the lives of our people but the negative happens.
“On another level, the state of our economy is under severe scrutiny and we are very careful that we might be rated or downgraded.
“We have also learnt that there are people that are rating us, looking at our problems, whether our country is too risky or what.
“You talk about Treasury, you talk about NPA wanting to talk to the Minister of Finance [Pravin Gordhan], the rand fluctuates,” the Premier said as delegates began to laugh a lot.
“And grading agencies are looking at us to say we are corrupt”.
He said the problems of the poor to get employment were affected “by a number of factors” and “we must agree that capital is now an active player in influencing transformation”.
“The state of being downgraded to a junk status means we have reached a useless stage, no one can trust you, no one can borrow you a cent. But ask yourself why only South Africa is being scrutinised and not our neighbouring countries? Because we are seen as a pillar and a player that can turn the situation around in Africa, therefore we are being scrutinised.
“Probably that’s a good thing but this state of being downgraded makes all of us very scared of attempting any new policy initiatives because you are at a point where you can make mistakes,” he said.
He said it was now high time that local businesspeople invest in their own economy than the opposite and then slammed those tenderprenuers who wanted benefits from the school feeding scheme and RDP houses, saying in cases where a builder was expected to put four bags of cement, the builder put one and “you think you are building that house for a dog?”
SEE ALSO: Mabuza wants Govt to fund poor to build own RDP houses, produce quality bricks
“Why do we think that there is somebody coming outside to invest here, where is our local businesspeople who must invest in their economy? No one is coming, we are on our own”.
He then said that he heard that the SACP in the province wanted to leave the ANC.
“Where are you going?” he said to laughter, “Hey, you can’t leave here, this is all our problems, not an ANC problem,” he said, adding people were now tired of internal fighting.
(edited by ZK)
send tips to [email protected]
