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Cosatu secretary in the Northern Cape, Anele Gxoyiya, says the trade union federation remains steadfast in its support for Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to become the next ANC president in December despite allegations that he has had extramarital affairs.
“Our attitude is that we have no business with the bedroom politics of other people,” Gxoyiya said in an interview with a local radio station in Kimberley as both the ANC and its alliance partners embarked on a campaign to ensure that Ramaphosa would be received by a full house at a cadre’s assembly on Sunday.
The campaign, dubbed #FillUpMittahSperepere – the 2500-seater convention centre directly opposite the world renowned Kimberley Big Hole – has seen ANC and alliance leaders conducting a series of interviews on local radio stations in a bid to draw a maximum crowd.
Gxoyiya said Ramaphosa “is not being accused of any rape of friend’s daughter who is HIV positive or impregnating a friend’s daughter”.
In the past, he said, Ramaphosa’s opponents were at the forefront of supporting people accused of rape and impregnating a friend’s daughter.
“We see malice in these allegations and we will not be defocused or deterred,” he said.
“In order to unify the organisation the president needs to be above factional politics, and everyone should agree on the election of the president,” Gxoyiya said.
On August 9 the national government held Women’s Day celebrations in Kimberley, attended by President Jacob Zuma, another presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and several government ministers.
Gxoyiya said Dlamini-Zuma’s visit was not an ANC event sanctioned by the provincial ANC executive committee but “a government programme that was abused by those with access to government resources and converted into an ANC programme”.
“That was just a mischievous factional programme,” he said, adding that alliance partners were always invited to speak at ANC sanctioned programmes.
On Sunday, Ramaphosa will start the day in Jan Kempdorp near Kimberley at a prayer meeting of the Catholic Church. He is scheduled to address the cadre’s assembly at Mittah Sperepere at about midday.
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