Johannesburg — With one day to go to the much anticipated 55th ANC conference in Johannesburg, an ANC national executive committee young nominee and ANC’s greater Johannesburg sub-regional secretary Phapano Phasha has endorsed Dr Zweli Mkhize to be elected as president of the ANC at weekend.
Phasha said Mkhize has what it takes to renew and rescue the ANC from collapse. She said what was clear and likely to save the ANC was a new leadership breed that will be centred on the struggles of the people and restore the ANC as a leader of society and said that leadership should be under Mkhize’s presidency.
Phasha said as a researcher and a policy maker well vested in civil society she was “against the economy” which is still in the hands of the white minority whom she said continues to make billions in profits while the majority suffers.
Although her branch nominated President Cyril Ramaphosa, she said she supports Mkhize to be the president. She said as a member of the radical economic transformation faction she supported Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in 2017 but this time felt Mkhize was a better candidate and stood a good chance to win.
On her nomination for the NEC position, she said she was ready to serve and make her contribution to the decision-making body in between conferences, adding that after serving at grassroots level for several decades she believed that the NEC must now be filled by young men and women who align themselves with the policies of the ANC and not leaders with business interests who fail to implement ANC policies because they are conflicted.
Although she is a descendant of the late king Montsioa of Barolong kingdom in Northwest who was one of the founders and funders of the ANC she did not regard herself as ANC royalty and does not want to be treatedas special.
“The family credentials and history have never had any bearing on my political activism. I joined the Congress of South African Students in 1998 at Kwa-Mahlobo High School in Soweto and subsequently the ANCYL and ANC in 2000 in Dobsonville Soweto,” said Phasha.
She is also a chairperson of the Brian Bunting Branch in Roodepoort.
Daily News