Veterans of the African National Congress (ANC) say while they feel comfortable with the ruling party under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa, they want to see all those implicated in wrongdoing apprehended.

During an exclusive interview with Polity, ANC Veterans League president Snuki Zikalala said they were campaigning vigorously for the party.

“We made sure that President Ramaphosa was elected during Nasrec and we fully support his cleansing programme, and we fully support his initiative in terms of ensuring that there is good governance in all parastatals. He must make sure that all those who are found looting must face the law,” said Zikalala.

He denied that the veterans were caught up in what has been dubbed Ramaphoria. He explained that former President Jacob Zuma and Ramaphosa were two different leaders.

“Under comrade Zuma we had nine years of madness, it is a fact. Under comrade Cyril Ramaphosa he’s committed to transparency, he is committed to deal with corruption. We as veterans, are people who were campaigning even before it was fashionable that comrade Zuma must leave and that the ANC must go back to its original roots in terms of its value systems, in terms of its policies, in terms of its principles. We are the people advocating for that. It is not a question of Ramaphoria,” emphasised Zikalala.

ANC ELECTION LIST

When asked about ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule’s statement that the ANC party list was a done deal, Zikalala said it was not a done deal because the integrity commission had provided recommendations to the ANC’s top six.

“The top six of the ANC still has to bring down the list itself to the national executive committee so that it should be discussed. It is not up to the SG, it’s up to the ANC’s national executive committee,” he asserted.

CAMPAIGN

Zikalala added that the recent campaign to mobilise all senior ANC members to vote on May 8 had been successful.

“The majority of the Veterans League in the provinces are fully involved in election campaigning because we don’t want to see the ANC losing power, once you lose power you will never regain it. We want the ANC to win. We don’t believe in coalitions. We are fully involved in the ANC’s election campaign to make sure that the ANC wins with an overwhelming victory come May 8.

“We want to bring back the ANC’s values, we want to bring back the ANC’s traditions and we want to make sure that the ANC implements its policy decisions that are taken every five years at ANC national conferences,” he said.

Zikalala also applauded Ramaphosa for the ongoing commissions of inquiries, which have shed some light on how the State’s coffers were looted. 

“Those commissions are yielding positive results in terms of cleaning up State-owned entities,” he pointed out.

MAY 8 AND BEYOND

Zikalala told Polity that the party should make sure that it delivered on its mandate and that it went back to its original values.

“The party must cleanse itself from corrupt elements and make sure that it is fully entrenched within society. The ANC has launched the Oliver Tambo School of Leadership. It will train our young leaders, the youth, members of the executive committee on ANC values and ANC traditions and ANC ethics. All that we want, as veterans, is ethical leadership within society and within the ANC itself,” he added.  

Meanwhile, ahead of May 8, Zikalala encouraged the youth to come out in large numbers to vote. The future of the country and the future of the ANC was with young people, he said.

He acknowledged that a lack of jobs and quality education was disappointing the youth but he urged them to vote for the ANC, saying that the party had the best policies in the world and that it was the only party bringing about socioeconomic change in the country.