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Polokwane - ANC presidential race contender Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma asked her backers to accelerate lobbying in the party's branches and ensure she win in December.
Dlamini-Zuma made the appeal during the Peter Mokaba memorial lecture at Polokwane’s Jack Bores municipal hall on Thursday evening.
She told ANC Youth League president Collen Maine and her supporters that they must work hard and recruit branches to endorse her.
"I have spent my life dedicated to the ANC, and there is no way I can turn down the nomination. But you have to work towards it so that the branches share that view," said Dlamini-Zuma.
The Youth League used the memorial lecture to parade the former African Union leader as presidential material to the people of Limpopo.
Maine told hundreds of ANC supporters that the national executive committee of the ANCYL has resolved to support Dlamini-Zuma.
He claimed it was not an easy decision, saying the league had to deliberate and concluded that they would rally behind Dlamini-Zuma.
The league also made it clear that it does not want to see current ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe retaining his position. Instead Maine said current Free State chairperson Ace Magashule is their preferred candidate.
"The secretary general will be Ace Magashule, and we don’t believe that he will kill the ANC," said Maine.
Tripartite alliance divided
The league has garnered controversy after its alleged association with the Gupta family, who are fingered in the Public Protector’s State of Capture report, and in the subsequent leaked Gupta emails.
The ANC's upcoming December elective conference has left the tripartite alliance divided and worsened the leadership crisis as Cosatu and the SACP have both thrown their weight behind deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa to become next ANC president.
Addressing ANC supporters, Dlamini-Zuma described Peter Mokaba as the leader who was dedicated to the party mandate and its values.
She said the current generation of youth must strive to emulate Mokaba, and he had urged his peers to learn as theory needed corrective practice, she said.
"The youth league during Mokaba time - when the ANC was saying the country must be ungovernable -they had [a] programme to clean up, and participated in [the] education charter campaign.
"Our youth must utilize the political space created by Mokaba and his generation to pursue [the] agenda of economic development.
"We have political power [but] we don’t have economic power. Economic power is not yet achieved, [and] without economic freedom will not arrive where we want to arrive."
