Zuma+rebellion+rocks+ANC+elite



=Zuma 'rebellion' rocks ANC elite=


 * //Long knives are out for dissidents who spearheaded revolt against Mbeki//**

Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, July 3, 2005

 * By Christelle Terreblanche and Moipone Malefane**

President Thabo Mbeki's fortunes have plunged to a record low in a humiliating week that saw the ANC rank and file throw their support firmly behind the man he axed as deputy president.

A dramatic turn of events saw Jacob Zuma's power in the party rise, while simmering discontent over Mbeki burst out in the open just as a crucial ANC review conference was about to kick off.

The president was this week publicly humiliated in an unprecedented show of anti-Mbekism by ANC supporters and delegates at the party's national general council in Pretoria.

Last night senior sources in the party said the president was sharpening his knives for those forces of discontent - from the left and the right of the party - whom he perceived to have rallied around Zuma.

Today Mbeki will address the closing plenary session to allay fears of centralisation of the party. Yesterday afternoon he attended discussions on the ANC's organisation report, which that committee essentially threw out. Mbeki's move to modernise the party was seen by delegates opposing him as an attempt to cement his authority.

After keeping the ANC leadership in the dark until the last minute, Zuma arrived at the national general council opening ceremony on Thursday amid chants from the floor of "Zuma my president", while Mbeki supporters tried to drown them out.

The council meeting began in what some delegates called "a most horrible atmosphere". There was a palpable air of tension and despondency, but a day later the same people were jubilantly talking about a "coup" over Mbeki.

The drama started unfolding in public when, in a highly unusual departure from his organisational report-back to the council, Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC secretary-general, explained to about 2 000 delegates why Zuma had been fired.

It opened a window for delegates to discuss the issue, against Mbeki's explicit wishes. Delegates were, however, barred from discussing Mbeki's firing of Zuma, as well as his pending trial.

Instead they were allowed to discuss Zuma's role as ANC deputy president and his decision last week to withdraw from "active party duties" pending the trial.

"It was a walkover," said a senior alliance delegate of the heated discussions that followed. Delegates duly overturned an ANC national executive committee (NEC) decision to allow Zuma "to be released from party duties" that effectively relegated him to party deputy president in name only.

In addition, most of the NEC policy proposals attributed to Mbeki confidantes, notably those advocating deregulation of the labour market and the redesign of the ANC's organisational structure to ensure greater top-down control, are understood to have been resoundingly rejected.

Smuts Ngonyama, the ANC spokesperson, earlier admitted that the delegates had little appetite for some of the proposals for tighter management of party affairs, such as a more powerful NEC.

When Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele, the deputy secretary-general of the ANC, was asked yesterday whether this meant proposals to modernise the party had been rejected, she said it had been decided to take the proposals for organisational reform back to the branches for further discussion. A decision would be taken at the ANC's 2007 congress. "There's no problem", she said. "They just need more time."

It is understood that Mbeki cancelled his attendance at a royal wedding in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday to address the council personally over its perception that the executive, with its organisational redesign, was trying to impose tighter top-down technocratic control over sub-structures.

The council snubs followed two weeks in which Mbeki seemed to have the upper hand, apparently vindicated on his decision to axe Zuma and by the goodwill displayed towards Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, whom he appointed as deputy president. It is understood Mbeki and his top leadership believed they had contained the fallout.

Zuma was reinstated to five powerful positions, including to the chair of the national deployment committee, which is responsible for making key appointments in the ANC and at all levels of government, the legislatures and parastatals. This will enable him to continue dispensing party patronage, an ace up his sleeve as it is now apparent he is not about to quit the succession race.

Mosiuoa Lekota, the ANC's national chairperson, said the overturning of the NEC decision was based on the principle that a person was presumed innocent until proved guilty. As commissions started thrashing out ANC policy behind closed doors on Friday, sources said discussions showed that the recent drama around Zuma had entrenched an anti-Mbeki mood.

"Everybody blames everything on him now," said one delegate. Lekota hinted that members who had publicly denounced Mbeki would be disciplined.


 * From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2610038