Back in June 2005 and on many occasions since, the ANC spin doctors have accused “the media” of manufacturing divisions between President Thabo Mbeki and his deputy, Jacob Zuma.
Read what Smuts Ngonyama, who was on radio this morning admitting to deep conflict in the ANC, said back then:
“For as long as the South African media has covered the ANC, it has excelled in finding ‘divisions’ between the communists and the nationalists, the hawks and the doves, the exiles and the internal structures, between Nguni and non-Nguni, and between the supposed supporters of any number of leadership figures.”
“It (the media) found evidence of this everywhere, from the results of ANC provincial conferences to the attendance at government izimbizo.”
“Once again, these imagined divisions are presented as cataclysmic, with various commentators predicting everything from the dismemberment of the ANC to the end of the alliance.”
“The most recent reports, it should be acknowledged, have been fueled by a handful of voices within the ANC and its alliance partners who willingly propagate such falsehoods in pursuit of narrow individual agendas.”
“As in the past, these predictions will prove baseless.”

A letter of apology will be gladly accepted. It turns out we were UNDERPLAYING the deep factional rift in the ANC.

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