ANC statement on ANN7 reports on May Day rallies

3 May 2017

The African National Congress categorically rejects allegations made by media outlet, ANN7, that the ANC Deputy President, Secretary General and Treasurer General “pushed” President Zuma to attend the May Day Rally organized by COSATU in the Free State on the 1st May 2017. Such reportage is habitual and typical of ANN7 - devoid of truth, divisive and designed to create an illusion of some “ANC insider” status for the channel.

Deployment of ANC leaders to the various May Day rallies held on Monday was a collective decision of the National Officials not some fictitious structure called the Top 3. Further, it was a decision taken by the National Officials fully aware of the potential for heckling and other disruptions. Regardless of the potential for discord, the leadership felt it necessary and correct that invitations as received from COSATU were honored and the ANC message calling for unity of the Alliance be delivered. 

Members of the media have a responsibility to report the news accurately, factually and objectively.  ANN7 however seems determined to manufacture false consensus, sharpening contradictions and deepening fissures in the ANC. The station effectively acts as a mouthpiece of the factional divisions that plague the African National Congress, consistently showing itself as being intent on driving wedges within the organization and pitting comrade against comrade. 

This is behavior that the ANC has fought in the past and will continue to do so in the run up to the National Conference and beyond. The unity of the African National Congress remains paramount and our overriding ambition. We will not be distracted in this quest by narrow, self-serving interests whose motivations can only serve to further weaken the ANC.

Issued by Zizi Kodwa, National Spokesperson, ANC, 3 May 2017