Former President Jacob Zuma has written a letter to his successor President Cyril Ramaphosa with regards to corruption, the image of the ANC, and leadership.
The letter by Zuma is a response to Ramaphosa’s Open Letter regarding corruption within the ANC.
Savanna News publishes Zuma’s letter in its entirety below:
28 August 2020
Dear Mr President
Cc: Secretary-General : African National Congress
Cc: National Chairperson of the African National Congress
Mr President Ramaphosa, as one of the members of the ANC, I have also received your open letter, written to all members of the ANC. This is indeed an unusual act by the leader of our movement. Given the nature and seriousness of the matters raised in your letter, I have decided to take an unusual decision to respond to your letter, in writing, which is something I am not used to because I normally favour engaging in a discussion within our structures, rather than writing a letter.
Mr President, like other members of the African National Congress (“the ANC”) I received and read your letter of 23 August 2020. Although I write in my capacity as an ordinary member of the ANC, I am mindful of the fact that as the former President of the ANC, it may be unprecedented that I write a letter of this nature. However, I am of the firm view that the issues you raise in your letter are indeed serious and deserve our attention as members of the ANC.
Mr President, I address this private letter to you, as the President of the ANC, and request that you share it with the entire leadership as well as structures of our movement. I do not seek to address my own President and organization through the media or public letters as that would be foreign to the well-established culture of the ANC. I write it, not to at-tack your person, but to engage in constructive and honest debate that our movement always encourages. I also hope that my letter will be kept as an internal communication directed at the leadership and the en-tire membership.
In your letter, in which you state ,what you view as ” one of the great-est challenges since the advent of democracy“, you regrettably place the scourge of corruption right at the door-step of ordinary mem-bers of the ANC, most of whom are the urban and rural poor working class people, who have never abused state resources. In their numbers, they live in abject poverty waiting for the ever elusive better life for all, you and I promised them.
You are correct, Mr President, that corruption is one of the issues to be confronted head-on. Your letter correctly points out that “What has caused the greatest outrage is that there are private sector companies and individuals (including civil servants) who have exploited a grave medical, social and economic crisis to wrong-fully enrich themselves.” You proceed to state, again correctly, that “This is an unforgivable betrayal for millions of South Africans who are being negatively affected by the impact of COVID-19, experiencing hunger daily, hopelessness and joblessness.”
None of us can fault you for stating that such conduct is indeed con-temptuous of our efforts to pursue the historic mission of the ANC, which is to defend and advance the rights of African people and our stated objective of the National Democratic Revolution, the liberation of black people in general and Africans in particular. None of us can differ with you that our 5415 National Conference in December 2017 decried the increase in corruption in South Africa and undertook to confront it.
Our movement was indeed correct, to assess, as it always does, the threats that confront the ANC, the objective and subjective conditions that prevail within our nascent democracy as well as the motive forces, we as cadres of the movement must understand in order to advance the historic mission of the ANC and the promise of a better life for all.
It is not the above obvious serious issues with which I take issue, for they are indeed matters that our movement, as the leader of society, should deal with. as they threaten the ANC’s great efforts and diminish its credibility in the eyes of our people, most of whom look up to the ANC to deliver the promised better life for all. It is indeed a blemish on society, the credibility of the ANC and by extension, on the legitimacy of the anti-apartheid struggle.