Let the best be president, says Mkhize

ANC treasurer-general Zweli Mkhize has distanced himself from any presidential campaign based on gender, saying the focus should be on capacity, irrespective of whether a candidate is a man or woman.

Mkhize said this in an interview with the Daily Dispatch while visiting the province to meet all sub-regional treasurers about fund-raising plans leading up to next year’s local elections.

Mkhize said the ANC would elect a leader “on the basis that they are capable, not on the basis that they are male of female. And so the issue of that being a female leader, is not the main issue.”

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is one of the candidates touted as a contender to succeed President Jacob Zuma in 2017. Zuma has already indicated he will not stand for a third term as ANC president.

“The main issue is to say amongst the leaders that we’ve got, we have many capable male and female leaders,” Mkhize said. “I will not be surprised if anyone is elected. I will not have any problem with it.”

Mkhize was elected into the party’s high office in 2012. Since then the party has been faced with several challenges, including the expulsion of Julius Malema, who promptly formed a new party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The EFF secured more than a million votes in Gauteng province alone in the May general elections last year.

Mkhize said Malema “had to be expelled from the ANC” because he was giving the party unnecessary attention in the media.

“The media today is not able to say the ANC was being criticised because of the misconduct of Julius Malema. When people are in the ANC and do wrong things, everybody focuses on that. When they join opposition benches, they kind of ignore the inappropriate conduct and irregularities that people are involved in, and focus on the ANC. I think from the media there has to be a degree of honesty there,” he said.

However, Mkhize said the ANC was more concerned that its youth structures on campuses were unable to play a central role in the recent student protests.

“Our concern is that Ancyl, Sasco and the YCL (Young Communist League) must take charge of these institutions.

“For us, they must focus of the youth issues and when they focus on youth issues, it will be inevitable that the youth will understand that they are a very relevant leadership.

“So we need to work very hard to take charge of this,” he added.

Mkhize warned South Africans not to panic because of the protest.

“If you ever sit on the basis that tomorrow we are going to face an apocalypse, that would be counter-productive,” he said, noting that three million houses had been built but there were more housing protests than before.

He said people’s expectations were not going to become any less, even if the government provided free education. “People would still protest about youth unemployment.

“If you would have had all those youths employed, the issue would have been who is earning least and why. That tells you that these are issues of more expectations.”