South Africa, ANC challenged to vote against Zuma's cronies, old politicians

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@USAfricaLive @Chido247

South Africa’s former finance minister Trevor Manuel has publicly stated his opposition to aged bracket of leaders (in their 70s) who are governing South Africa and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at various levels.”I don’t understand it. One of the reasons I stepped out of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC voluntarily [is because] I’d served for 21 years in the NEC and I said I can’t continue to serve, I mustn’t hang onto this position with white knuckles,” Manuel said to Stellenbosch University students on Wednesday.

USAfrica notes the country’s controversial and scandal-ridden President Jacob Zuma is 75 years old.

Manuel challenged the ANC “to bring through a generation of people who want to be there and will be active and say to other people: you served us well, become part of a general reservoir of information and knowledge and a sounding board for what we do, but don’t sit in the chairs of those who need to be there…. Democracy is never about elections once in every five years, it’s about building dynamic processes that involve people in their everyday lives. If we lose, if we give up on that opportunity I think we fail fundamentally to understand what democracy requires of us.”.

On the issue of sexual abuse — especially on campus, he stated that it “is not a women’s issue; it’s a campus life issue and I think mobilising students to behave differently to deal with the past of patriarchy and abusive relationships is something we must take a lot more seriously.”