Former Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom has said that a different outcome at African National Congress (ANC) 54th conference in 2017 “would have been disastrous” for South Africa.
Hanekom made the comment on Twitter on Sunday amid the raging debate about CR17 campaign funding.
Let’s just say it, unapologetically, and be frank about it – although we should continue to strive for unity in the ANC – a different outcome at NASREC would have been disastrous for our country.
Derek Hanekom
The conference, which was held Nasrec in Johannesburg, elected Cyril Ramaphosa as ANC President. He later became South Africa’s President.
Ramaphosa was up against Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who was widely believed to have been backed by former President Jacob Zuma.
Ramaphosa comments on CR17
Hanekom, who is also an ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member, was reacting to Ramaphosa’s comments on the ongoing CR17 controversy.
Speaking before his departure from Tanzania on Sunday, Ramaphosa said the controversy is not distracting him from his work as president.
Issues that are going on with the Public Protector are par for the course. These are political things that are happening. They are not distracting me.
I was elected by the people of South Africa to do their work and I’ll carry on doing their work.
President Cyril Ramaphosa
Social media is awash with leaked bank statements allegedly from the CR17 campaign accounts.
They reportedly show how individuals received funds from the campaign, apparently to do campaign work in support of Ramaphosa’s candidacy.