Pretoria - Days after resigning from the ANC, the party he had been part of for 43 years, Carl Niehaus has set his eyes on recruiting former president Jacob Zuma, erstwhile party secretary-general Ace Magashule and Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu to his new Radical Economic Transformation Movement.
Niehaus announced the formation of the NPO earlier this month following his resignation from the ANC, during which time he had appealed against his expulsion from the party.
The ANC national disciplinary committee had wielded its axe and expelled Niehaus in December, days before the governing party’s 55th national elective conference. This was after he was found guilty of six counts of misconduct for contravening the ANC’s constitution and bringing the party into disrepute.
Speaking to the Pretoria News yesterday, the former uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans’ Association national executive committee (NEC) member said all was in order to officially launch his NPO that would bring unity to political parties.
Niehaus said the three senior members of the liberation movement - Zuma, Sisulu and Magashule - were not opposed to the RETMO idea.
“But the degree to which they will become actively involved and how they will participate is up to them. It would only be established once the NPO is rolled out,” said Niehaus.
Niehaus, a fierce critic of President Cyril Ramaphosa, insisted that his organisation was not a breakaway party from the ANC, like the “others”.
The ANC has had its fair share of disgruntled members forming their own parties, among them the EFF, created after the expulsion of then ANC Youth League president Julius Malema and his spokesperson, Floyd Shivambu.
Cope, formed by former ANC chairperson Mosiuoa Lekota, also broke away from the ANC after the 2007 ANC elective conference that saw Zuma come into power, and booted out then president Thabo Mbeki, paving the way for the fallout.
Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement was also created out of an ANC breakaway.
But Niehaus said he did not see his new formation as anti-ANC or a reaction to the governing party because it was not a political party, adding that he was in talks with a wide range of senior members within the ANC.
The priority of the NPO was to advance the ideals of Radical Economic Transformation (RET) because after the 55th conference at Nasrec last month, the ANC had lost its focus.
Niehaus was not looking to contest the 2024 national elections, but his focus was to unite political parties and civil society that have RET as an ideal.
“This is to oppose the selling out of the ANC government,” he said.
The December conference saw Phala Phala scandal-hit Ramaphosa emerge victorious over former health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, despite a series of protests outside the venue by Niehaus, opposing Ramaphosa’s election.
Calling the ANC an organisation in “favour of new liberalism”, Niehaus said the party had lost its formation for the poor and was an agent for white monopoly capital.
“I left the ANC because the 55th conference confirmed that the party was no longer the ANC that I joined, that was working for full liberation of the people. It has betrayed the RET policy,” Niehaus said.
Sisulu’s spokesperson Steve Motale said the minister was not involved in Niehaus’ NPO.
He said: “Why would she support it and why are you singling her out for this question, or is it a question that you are asking every single member of the ANC NEC?
“Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has been a member of the ANC's national executive committee for years, a body she was re-elected to recently.
“Sisulu was one of the members who demonstrated the resilience of the ANC when it’s influential leaders went outside to form Cope after Polokwane, some of whom are instrumental in the running of today’s government inside the ANC.
This is to say Sisulu is the ANC to the bone, with all its revolutionary fibre and an embodiment of its value system.
“She doesn’t have the luxury of playing and experimenting with the Revolution, everybody knows that she is amongst the few authentic guardians left to the ANC. We don’t know why would you single her out knowing very well what she represents in the ANC.”
Jacob Zuma Foundation spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi did not respond to enquiries on whether Zuma supported Niehaus’s idea.
Magashule’s phone was off.
Pretoria News