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Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe’s lobby group has been first off the block to officially launch his ANC presidency aspirations, the same day that the party decided to open the succession race.
The ANC national executive committee agreed this weekend to give the green light to open lobbying for leadership positions.
In Royal Marang Hotel near Sun City, 173km north west of the ANC’s meeting in Irene in St George, Radebe’s lobby group thrashed out the preparations for the upcoming marathon, making sure that their candidate was ready for the upcoming challenge.
He is being touted as a student activist, a Robben Islander, a trained uMkhonto weSizwe soldier, a qualified lawyer and an ideologically groomed leader.
They set the bar high, declaring that their candidate was “[comfortable] to go through a lifestyle audit because he was not immune to public scrutiny”.
Radebe, who has had few rough days recently following the revelations of a “sexting” scandal with a female government employee, was not present at the “consultative meeting” due to ANC commitments in Irene.
In an apparent bid to quickly get the embarrassing matter out of the way, Radebe’s chief lobbyist, Sipho Masuku, said the group “does not in any way condone the [sexting] behaviour of Radebe”.
“Yet we understand that [he] erred, and through his public apology, accepts full responsibility for his actions and shows remorse,” Masuku said.
He said the lobby group “consequently embraces [his] humble and sincere public apology”.
He decried that 10 years ago the late Fezeka Khuzwayo, widely known as “Khwezi”, “was turned into the perpetrator instead of the victim”.
Khwezi had accused President Jacob Zuma of rape but he was later acquitted.
“We also acknowledge that the road to ANC presidency is unlikely to be an easy one,” Masuku said, adding that “our heads remain above the parapet, despite the humiliation suffered by all parties involved in the ‘sextext’ media frenzy”.
He said the texts were “a private communication between adults that was paraded in public”.
He said Radebe, “Mr Fix It”, was the most respected leader in the ANC and in society, and was capable of addressing the challenges facing the ANC and its alliance partners.
“We believe that he is the man to take our country forward,” he said, mentioning the historical occasion in 1861 when a young American William Yancy said to president-elect Jefferson Davis: “The man and the hour have met.”
“This time is upon us [and] a moment of déjà vu is upon patriotic South Africans as they say: ‘The man and the hour have met’, concurrently whispering Jeff Radebe’s name.”
Masuku said Radebe’s reputation in the ANC-led movement was untainted.
“Both the ANC and South African Communist Party have invested immensely in our candidate. He is among the few remaining true stewards within the ANC, [and] never one to over-emphasise his struggle credentials.”
Radebe has been in government since 1994, he said, and “he has not been associated with, or implicated in any maladministration”.
“He is the embodiment of what a dedicated political activist should be when given a responsibility to govern,” he said.
Masuku said the movement was “experiencing an evaporation of morals and ethics and a disconnection with society that now requires new leadership”.
“Our candidate represents this. We believe that he is the leader currently that can serve as a bridge between the old and new generation within the ANC, which is crucial for the party’s survival.”
Masuku said Radebe was not the character to take a public platform “to discredit or insult his comrades”. “He fully comprehends the meaning of comradeship. He respects the organisational norms, values, rules and vision.”
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