Sexwale+hitches+wagon+to+Zuma+star,+Xolani+Xundu,+The+Times



=Sexwale hitches wagon to Zuma’s star=


 * Xolani Xundu, The Times, 12 December 2007**

Mvelaphanda chairman Tokyo Sexwale yesterday threw his weight behind the leadership aspirations of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, saying it was time for President Thabo Mbeki to leave office.

Both men were in Engcobo, in the Eastern Cape, at an event attended by thousands of Zuma supporters.

Zuma repeated his call for the ANC to unite behind “whoever” triumphs in the voting for the presidency of the ANC at the party’s national conference which starts on Sunday in Polokwane.

He said delegates to the conference should “ask strong questions” about the health of the ANC — and if it wasn’t healthy they must ask “who was to blame”.

The ANC meets in Polokwane for a five-day conference at which a new president and national executive committee will be elected.

Mbeki and Zuma are contesting the presidency.

Sexwale told the crowd that good leaders had to understand that there were times when they too should be followers.

“You must learn to follow … as much as you must learn to lead. There is nothing that says leaders must be there forever. Learn to be humble, and move back and learn how to follow,” he said, in what is taken to be a reference to Mbeki, who is trying for a third term as ANC president.

Sexwale, who had gone around the country telling people that he was being put forward for the ANC presidency, surprised many at the rally when he said he was not campaigning but was encouraging people to speak out.

“Power does not matter, positions do not matter,” said Sexwale. “The voices of our people under this government were gone. We were living in fear and we whispered.

“You cannot stay where we are [in business] when people are afraid inside the ANC.

“You cannot remain quiet when there is a state of fear within the ANC. You cannot shut up when you see one comrade after another is being stabbed in the back.”

Sexwale said he went to Zuma when [Zuma] was “ very lonely, when people were moving away from [Zuma]. I went to him and I said, ‘Remember that the essence of a revolution is the people’.”

Sexwale said he was withdrawing from the race for the party’s national chairmanship.


 * From: http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=658482**

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