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Johannesburg – The ANC will not turn away anyone who wants to work on its election campaign, including former President Jacob Zuma, the party's head of elections Fikile Mbalula said on Friday.
He made the comments in defence of Zuma's participation in the party's elections registration drive this weekend.
Mbalula was speaking at a media briefing at the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters just hours after the ANC's chief whip in Parliament announced that the former minister of police had resigned as a member of Parliament.
READ: Fikile Mbalula resigns as ANC MP
He said the ANC would over the next two days embark on an intense voter registration campaign, urging young people to take up the opportunity to register to vote in the general elections next year.
"South Africa has entered a new era of hope and renewal," said Mbalula.
He also said all South Africans, including the youth, needed to come together in order to grow the country's economy, create jobs and fight inequality.
Last week, Zuma's attendance at an elections workshop led by Mbalula raised eyebrows.
READ: Jovial Zuma attends ANC elections workshop
"There is no question about those who come on board to complement the campaign and volunteer for the ANC," he said.
Zuma to campaign in KZN
Zuma has been blamed by some within and outside the political party for the ANC's decline at the polls that resulted in the political party losing three key metros around the country.
"Jacob Zuma is a former president and a veteran of the ANC. He has availed himself to support and be deployed by the ANC, a matter we have welcomed as an organisation," Mbalula told journalists.
He said there was no particular reason for Zuma's deployment to KwaZulu-Natal but that the former president had preferred to campaign in his home province.
The ANC's top six and members of its national executive committee have been deployed across the country, with President Cyril Ramaphosa spending the weekend campaigning in Soweto and Tshwane.
Mbalula also said the task of rallying young people behind the ANC and its mission did not lie solely with the youth league.
He said the young lions, as the league is sometimes known as, had started various campaigns across the country.
"The task of mobilising the youth doesn't fall squarely on the league, same with the mobilisation of women, but the structures are playing a leading role in that regard," said Mbalula.
