President of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, Jacob Zuma, has promised to end poverty, unemployment, alcohol abuse and other social ills in the country.
Zuma spoke towards the end of the party’s media briefing held in Sandhurst on Thursday.
He said the party was not in a rush to go into an elective conference as the party was still trying to consolidate and organise itself before thinking about an elective conference which can be abused by those who want to buy positions and for their own ends.
“We are saying we are not interested in conferences and spending a lot of money before consolidating the party because people use money to buy conferences. We have had conferences being bought.
“We have had five SGs because we say nobody will do things we do not tolerate. We are still going to do it if we find people doing wrong things here because we are fixing the country. We mean serious business when we say we want to liberate black people of this country,” Zuma said.
He welcomed former EFF deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, into the MK Party, saying only he understands him when he said he would never leave the ANC and would die a member.
Shivambu was on Thursday unveiled as the national organiser of his new political home, the MK Party, following his departure from the EFF over a week ago.
Zuma said he admired Shivambu because his politics are informed by science.
“This is a young and principled leader whose politics are scientific... Only my brother here (Floyd) understood what I said when I said I will die as a member of the ANC. It is because I love history. I know history. The ANC was established by our elders, our traditional leaders, our intellectuals and our pastors to defend the black person who was being suppressed by the white man.
“These leaders knew what they were doing and they were uniting us because our unity was not at that level. All these traditional leaders were in their areas but these leaders realised that the black person was being taken out of his own home,” he said.
On the issues of crime, youth unemployment and other social ills, Zuma said the MK Party is committed to resolving these social ills which have made the country too tolerant of wrongdoing.
“I was just telling you what we are all about. It is about making this country good for all its citizens. We are very serious as we have been serious before to correct these wrongs. We believe that there are a lot of wrongs. We can’t sit when our children are finished by liquor and other things and think that this is correct.
“ ...The youth are the future citizens of this country and it is our duty to ensure that their future is protected. We have become too soft to wrong things and all of this needs to stopped when we in charge of this government,” he said.
The Star