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Durban – ANC KwaZulu-Natal chair Senzo Mchunu on Thursday compared the power of the party and its alliance to that of God.
"The [Democratic Alliance] has no power. If you combine the power of the ANC, SACP and [civic movement] Sanco in KwaZulu-Natal, that power can only compete with God. Okay, maybe that power is just a little less than God’s power. We can’t be threatened by the DA," Mchunu told guests and delegates at Cosatu’s 12th provincial congress in Durban.
"There was a lot of talk around the congress with speculation from various parties and the media, who said the congress was not going to be a success; it was going to be disrupted and would be torn apart by differences," Mchunu said.
"The ANC held its elective conference in Mangaung in 2012. We held that conference without certain people... The same people went and formed Cope in 2008 and all the media was then focused on Mosiuoa Lekota and all the hullabaloo that accompanied that drama.
"By 2012, when we went to the next conference, all those people who were talking were no longer there, and they were no longer celebrities. Instead, the ANC re-emerged as the only celebrity in those platforms.
"Before that we had heard about Bantu Holomisa, who rose to be a popular leader in the ANC, until he became more popular than the ANC. Today we hear from him once a month, he is fighting for his own survival in the peripheries of the political platforms in South Africa," said Mchunu to loud cheers.
Later in his speech, Mchunu took on the DA and Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), warning the ANC to be careful.
"As the ANC we need to strengthen our most powerful weapon, which is unity... We are heading toward the local elections.
"The DA is eager to take the eThekwini metro. The 2014 elections showed them they can win Nelson Mandela Bay, that’s why they have the metro in their sights."
"We need to question why people are leaving the ANC. There is something we are not doing right for people in the townships to leave the organisation. Why do people flock to see DA leader Mmusi Maimane in Inanda? Maybe it’s because the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is beleaguered by leadership squabbles."
Mchunu said the ANC needed to protect democracy at all cost.
"We are going to lose power if we are not streetwise. They say the kick of a dying horse is the most dangerous. As the IFP dies, it will kick the hardest in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
"There is another new party called the NFP [New Freedom Party], but it is also dying because all its members are going back to the IFP. They are one and the same thing anyways. The ANC remains the dominating force, we need more unity now more than ever."
