POLITICS

Ministers who don't want Zuma can go - Fikile Mbalula

Police minister says people saying they want to save SA, but then fail to provide jobs

Those who don't want Zuma can leave, they will be replaced - Mbalula

Durban - Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has called out those who say they want to save South Africa but are doing nothing to help fix its unemployment crisis.

He was addressing a crowd at the ANC Youth League's 73rd anniversary rally in the greater KwaDukuza region, in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.

Mbalula said that there are businesses and various people who are in control of the economy who do not want to help the government with job creation.

"Our people are surviving on social grants,” said Mbalula, adding that while there are 10 million young people without jobs - people are saying they want to save South Africa but are not providing those jobs.

Mbalula also questioned why President Jacob Zuma was under attack for choosing the ministers he wanted.

"They don’t want radical economic transformation, they want stooges…Who said [axed Finance Minister] Pravin [Gordhan] was born as a minister?” he asked, saying that some people wanted a particular person as finance minister.

"Some say [at their rallies] that they don’t want Zuma in power - but they are comfortable in their Cabinet positions and refer to [him] as ‘Mr President’… If they want to go, they must go, they can be replaced. We have many members."

He said that when former president Thabo Mbeki was asked to resign by the ANC, many members left with him and they were all replaced, with some now trying to come back.

Mbalula said that the ANC has never endorsed corruption.

"We do have challenges and we accept our mistakes and [we] will fix them. We are not an organisation without challenges - we do have challenges and we will sort them out in our ANC way," he said.

He said that the struggle is being sold out by people the ANC had put its trust in.

"Those who sold out the organisation need to know that this is an old organisation, and they will never survive," he said.

News24