The president is endearing himself... Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
-----Original Message----- From: VC <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:49:49 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] President Zuma again invites workers into leadership of the ANC Business Day *Zuma repeats call to workers* *Natasha Marrian, Business Day, Johannesburg, 1 March 2012* PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma , for the second time in two weeks, invited workers yesterday to be represented in the top structure of the African National Congress (ANC), and said he was certain they would be elected if nominated to sit on the national executive committee of the party. He said the invitation had nothing to do with succession in the ANC , as he said was reported by some media, but was about "politics". Mr Zuma's invitation to union leaders last week to serve on the committee led to a clash between the ruling party and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa). The union was rebuked by ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe for calling on union leaders to take over the executive committee. Chastising the media for what he said was distortion of the comments he made to the Numsa political commission last week, Mr Zuma repeated his call to workers to take their place among the ANC's top brass. "The point I was making is that it's a weakness for the workers not to be in the ANC and influence the direction of the ANC... more specifically, the national executive committee of the ANC, not just in the branch or in the region or zone or province, at a place where decisions are taken," Mr Zuma said at the opening of labour federation Cosatu's new offices in Braamfontein. It was important for workers to influence the direction of the ANC from the inside, rather than criticise from the outside, Mr Zuma said. The ANC elects a new leadership in December in Mangaung. Emboldened by Mr Zuma's comments last week, Numsa said some serving on the ANC national executive committee should not be re-elected in Mangaung because they had failed to drive implementation of the largely pro-poor Polokwane resolutions. Mr Zuma chastised "poor journalists" who "don't understand" for misrepresenting his comments. "Because these workers are partly leaders of the ANC, if they were nominated to the (committee), I'm certain that they would be elected, and I think that's where the journalists lost it, and thought I am talking about Mangaung." Mr Zuma's administration is at loggerheads with the unions over a number of issues, most notably the contentious e-tolling in Gauteng and labour brokering. Mr Zuma's comments at the Numsa commission were viewed as an olive branch to Cosatu --- its support is vital in an election year. The federation unveiled its R50m building yesterday that it will be occupying with the South African Communist Party. The nine-storey building is equipped with state-of- the-art technology, complete with a television broadcasting system, video conferencing facilities, bulletproof glazing on doors, a gym, sauna and steam room. [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ** *From: http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=166384* ** ** ** -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
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