Vavi on ANC violence: ‘People who call each other comrade will plot to kill one another’

A low-intensity war is festering within the African National Congress (ANC) as comrades plot to kill their opponents in order to ascend to positions of leadership and wealth‚ Zwelinzima Vavi believes.

The former secretary-general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions said that violence flaring up in parts of the country‚ such as Tshwane‚ was far more complex than simple unhappiness over the party’s choice of mayoral candidate.

Speaking on Cape Talk radio on Monday‚ Vavi said that that ANC had become a place for “patronage networks” seeking access to wealth‚ run by “sycophants who support the leadership irrespective of the mistakes that they commit”.

“Tshwane is a symptom of what is happening elsewhere‚” he said.

People had been killed in KwaZulu-Natal and others murdered in Mpumalanga because they were whistle-blowers‚ he said.

“People who call each other comrade will plot to kill one another just to be in positions of leadership … because they think that’s the only way to ascend to a position that can give them instant wealth.

“Just imagine a day that all of the factions that are slaughtering each other face a common threat that they may lose an election‚ what South Africa will become if we don’t speak out now‚” he said.

He said that the party was experiencing a death of culture and principles‚ such as selflessness‚ and that was being replaced by a culture of selfishness and “to hell with everybody else”.

The biggest losers in the factional battles for power‚ he said‚ were the millions of people who were affected when busses and businesses were burnt in protest action.

Those behind the violence‚ he said‚ were “sending more people into the streets without any hope that they will ever get employment opportunities‚ so that you can be a councillor”.

“That’s a tragedy.”