Former president and current leader of MK Party Jacob Zuma. Picture: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers
MK Party and former President Jacob Zuma says struggle veterans, himself included, should not be crucified for failing to fully liberate the country but should instead be praised for their sacrifices.
Zuma made the remarks during the launching ceremony of the Sisulu Foundation for Justice and Peace in Cape Town on Thursday.
The ceremony was to honour the legacy of Walter and Albertina Sisulu on leadership.
The ANC was not present at the launch despite that the Sisulus belonged to the party.
Zuma, who is also a Struggle stalwart, told the crowd that South Africa is among the few countries that had the crème de la crème of their leaders being taken to jail for years and ended up coming back to conclude their task of liberating the country.
He said they should be honoured and celebrated.
“If we failed to take South Africa to the final point, cannot blame them, we will always praise them because they came with many things, including military struggle,” he said.
Zuma gave a brief reflection on the history of politics and how much they worked hard to get the country where it is today. This included being jailed, tortured, going into exile, and also brutally killed by the apartheid government.
Zuma is among those who were jailed and served 10 years in prison.
South Africa gained its freedom in 1994.
But in all of that, Zuma said the negotiations that gave birth to the democratic South Africa, also led to them having the Government of National Unity.
He further commended the then leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) saying they were real leaders who knew what they were doing.
He, however, took a sharp turn on the current leadership of the ANC, stating that it was weak and lost the plot.
He suggested that the Western countries were rejoicing in seeing a party that they did not want becoming weak even further.
According to the Zuma, the ANC was formed to liberate the country from the apartheid rule and ensure that all people were free.
“Indeed, today the organisation which they wanted to be weak in 30 years is weak. It is weak now, not just weak but almost moved off the route that it was given,” he said.
He said the current GNU is not the one as compared to the one in 1994 because that one had a meaning, which was to unite people.
“The current one does not mean anything. There was a difference in the thinking then because we were saying South Africans must now unite, come together, and work together.
“That is what we have been doing in the last 30 years,” he added.
Furthermore, he criticised the current leadership of the ANC and said they were ruining what was formed to unite.
Zuma formed his party, MK Party which he said would be the answer to the crisis facing the nation.
kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za
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