Friday, January 10, 2014

ANC Will Rule Forever, Says President Zuma

ANC will rule forever: Zuma

January 10, 2014

President Jacob Zuma has predicted a decisive victory for the ANC in the forthcoming elections, adding that the party will rule South Africa “forever”.

Addressing African National Congress (ANC) supporters at Kanyamazane in Mpumalanga as part of the party’s 102 birthday celebrations, Zuma said the ANC would continue running the country, whether their detractors liked it or not.

Zuma’s statement came on the back of party chairperson Baleka Mbete’s comment that the party was ready to prove its critics wrong. Mbete also said the ANC had taken stock of what needs to be done to enhance service delivery. The ANC chairperson said the ruling party had made a positive contribution to the lives of all citizens.

President Zuma vowed, “We will continue to run this government forever and ever. Whether they (detractors) like it or not.”

He was speaking during an impromptu door-to-door campaign in a township in Mbombela, the capital of northwestern Mpumalanga province where the party will on Friday launch its election manifesto and kick-off the polls campaign.

He urged his supporters to vote in numbers to ensure that the ANC garnered 90 percent of votes in the province, already a stronghold.
Observers predict a fall in nationwide support for the ANC this year, to around 60 percent or less.

Repeated corruption scandals, increasing crime levels, poverty, high unemployment levels and internal bickering are hurting the ANC’s popularity.

The country’s largest labour union, the National Union of Metalworkers’ of South Africa, decided last month to ditch the ANC and will not campaign for it nor support it financially in the upcoming polls.

But the ANC leader scoffed at suggestions that support for his party is waning.

“They are dreaming while they are awake. We are going to hammer them,” said Zuma in remarks quoted and translated by the City Press. “We are stronger than before”.

ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu confirmed to AFP that Zuma had been quoted correctly. The president’s statement infuriated the opposition which accused him of using intimidating tactics.

“The ANC is resorting to scaring and intimidating voters,” said James Masango, chairperson of the opposition Democratic Alliance in the Mpumalanga province.

“These thinly veiled threats are symptoms of a party and a president that is feeling the heat,” added Masango in a statement.

Masango labelled Zuma’s statement as “anti-democratic” and “unbecoming” of a president of a republic.

In 2008, Zuma also declared that his party would “rule until Jesus comes back”.

Zuma (71) was first elected to office in 2009. As the party’s leader he is almost certain to be its presidential candidate in the polls whose date has yet to be fixed.

Meanwhile, ANC spokesperson Mthembu said earlier on Wednesday that the South Africa of today was very different from 1994 when the country got its first democratically-elected government. Mthembu said as the ANC celebrates 102 years in existence, significant progress had been made.

The party was formed in 1912.

— SABC-AFP

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