Former ANC president Jacob Zuma must remain in the governing party and fight sellouts from within.
This is the view of African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance (Areta) leader Carl Niehaus, in range of political issues discussed on the newly formed Sunday World Engaged this week.
Niehaus’s sentiments will put to bed ongoing speculation that he would attempt to recruit Zuma to his party, which he formed after being expelled from the ANC last year.
According to him, Zuma must remain within the ANC, and the rest of the “progressives” must fight outside to consolidate disillusioned ANC supporters.
He says the fact that he and his personal and political friend Ace Magashule have their own political parties does not create a crisis for Zuma if he remains an ANC member.
If the destination is commonplace, he charged, moving on different routes to get there is a tactical political maneuver.
“I never asked [former] president Zuma to join Areta. I do not expect president Zuma to join Areta. I understand, at his age and with his rich history, that he should remain and work inside the ANC,” says Niehaus.
“I am working in Areta, outside the ANC. He works in the ANC, but we all work for the same ideal: to bring about the fundamental, radical economic transformation that must be part of full liberation to improve the lives of our people. So, there is no difference between us.”
Niehaus says Zuma’s role within the ANC was critical. “What Areta is doing is reaching out to the constituency, mainly disillusioned ANC members, but not exclusively so,” he says.
Regarding Magashule, he says the project is still in its infancy, but he will closely watch how it shapes itself in terms of the constituency it reached.
“Ultimately, all those constituencies, we will bring them together,” he says.
Niehaus says Zuma, from whom he draws political guidance, told him in one of their meetings at KwaDakwadunuse that “we may take different routes, but we are one”.
Before forming Areta, Niehaus consulted with Zuma in a four-hour meeting, where he apparently received the old man’s blessings.
To date, says Niehaus, there’s been no decision he has taken about Areta’s direction without bouncing it off Zuma.
Niehaus’ relationship with Zuma started in the 80s, when the latter visited him in prison after the apartheid regime’s refusal to release him. This was because the regime saw him as a traitor to his people – the Afrikaner community.
Niehaus believes it was Zuma who fought tooth and nail for his eventual release, which he viewed as the highest form of loyalty, and feels duty-bound to return the favour.
“President Zuma made it his task to come and see me in prison… And for me, it was an exciting experience.
“I made a commitment under those circumstances that I will stand with him, and I have stood with him.”
While Niehaus is of the view that Zuma must fight from within the ANC, he said he had little faith that the ANC could be salvaged. He counts on others in the ANC who want to see the liberation ideals of the ANC saved.
“If it is possible to save the ANC, it would be great, but it would have to be only on one basis: the return to the original liberation ideals,” he says.
“But having gone this far down the road of selling out and becoming comprador capitalists, I am skeptical it would turn around. For the upcoming elections, I do not see myself close to the ANC.”
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