businessday

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma used the reburial of veteran trade unionist Lesley Massina at the weekend to call on the alliance to respect the guiding principles of the African National Congress (ANC) of selflessly serving the people without gunning for positions, a tendency he said was beginning to affect party unity.

Although Zuma did not point at any ANC structure or mention names, the ANC Youth League has openly called for the removal of secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and lobbied for deputy police minister Fikile Mbalula to replace him.

Zuma said at the funeral service in Randburg that during the time of Massina, leaders in the ANC were not campaigning for positions. “The movement identified leaders based on their work and commitment to the movement.”

He said there was no trading of names before congresses as was happening now. “Branches were never under pressure to consider names for leadership; that is the ANC we know, not the one where people stand up and want to be elected.”

He also called for unity in the tripartite alliance, saying it was “paramount for the success of our democracy”. “No one among us should do anything that undermines our unity,” he told mourners.

The reburial of Massina provided an opportunity for bonding between workers and the revolutionary movement, he said. “Through his life he was courageous, committed and a diehard cadre of the ANC .”

Massina was a founding member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions in 1955, and became its first secretary-general. He left for Swaziland in 1961, where he died in exile in 1976.

In February the Swazi government granted permission for his remains to be exhumed and repatriated to Johannesburg . Sapa