Mbeki+men+are+womanisers,+Ido+Lekota,+Sowetan



=‘Mbeki men are womanisers’=


 * Ido Lekota, Sowetan, 10 December 2007**

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi yesterday accused members of ANC president Thabo Mbeki camp in the party’s leadership race of being opportunists and womanisers.

He said the men in the Mbeki camp were accusing ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma of abusing women though they were “legendary womanisers who want the 50:50 representation so they can take advantage of the women they voted into power”.

Vavi said ministers supporting Mbeki’s campaign to be re-elected ANC president were trying to protect their jobs.

He said most ministers had benefited from black economic empowerment by acquiring shares in companies themselves or through relatives.

“Every minister worried about losing his or her job is out there trying to convince people not to vote for Zuma,” Vavi told a crowd of ANC, Cosatu and South African Communist Party members at a rally in Westonaria.

He said ministers like ANC national chairman Mosiuoa Lekota were worried about the ending of “the javelin syndrome – where they throw the black economic empowerment javelin and run to the other end to catch it”.

“If you know the number of shares he [Lekota] has then you will understand why he is worried,” said Vavi.

SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande supported Vavi and said the call for 50:50 representation within the ANC had nothing to do with liberating the working-class and poor women.

“It is 50:50 representation between an elite man and an elite woman,” said Nzimande.

Lekota has recently come under the spotlight for accusing Zuma of lying about how Mbeki dismissed him as the deputy president of the country.

Other ministers have come under fire from the Zuma camp for allegedly running a campaign to win support for Mbeki.

Over the weekend the Zuma camp accused Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi of trying to bribe ANC members in Sekhukhune to vote for Mbeki.

Zuma has garnered far more support than Mbeki for the ANC leadership elections in Polokwane, being nominated by five provinces, the ANC Youth League and the ANC Women’s League.


 * From: http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=656646**

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