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Stop glorifying guns‚ says Dlamini-Zuma

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma refuses to be interviewed about the ANC succession race. Pic: Simphiwe Nkwali
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma refuses to be interviewed about the ANC succession race. Pic: Simphiwe Nkwali

Presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma wants ANC members to stop singing songs with “talk about guns".

She was speaking while on the campaign trail in Nquthu in northern KwaZulu-Natal ahead of a crucial by-election next week.

“There are songs we sing that I don’t understand. Let us do away with those songs that talk about guns. We can’t‚ when we campaign‚ start singing songs like ‘isibhamu sisho kamnandi’ (the gun sounds nice). How can a gun sound nice when comrades have been killed?” she said.

Zuma backs Nkosazana to replace himPresident Jacob Zuma has for the first time tacitly and publicly endorsed his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to replace him as ANC president‚ which will also see her elevated to the country’s top job. 

Dlamini-Zuma recalled how the party had gone to pay its respects at the house of a slain ANC member in Pietermaritzburg when supporters began singing this song.

“I know these songs were nice during the struggle. In Maritzburg‚ when we went to see the families of slain comrades‚ we started to sing this song. I even said to myself‚ ‘What are the families of comrades killed saying when we come singing that the gun sounds nice?’ Let us be sensitive and not sing those songs‚” she said.

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The former AU Commission chairwoman said there were so many songs to sing that do not glorify guns.

Sticking with this theme during an address at a Cadres Forum at the AV Makhoba Hall‚ Dlamini-Zuma also lashed out at ANC members who use violence and kill their comrades over positions.

“In this province‚ especially‚ where does this come from? And why‚ when it is done‚ no one is arrested‚ even when women are fair game and they are killed? No‚ comrades‚ councillorship is a responsibility given to you by the ANC‚” she said.

“It’s important‚ comrades‚ that we don’t kill each other for positions‚” she said.

Dlamini-Zuma said councillors only stay for five years‚ and would only be redeployed when they did well.

Breaking away from this theme‚ she repeated her campaign mantra that the ANC was advocating for radical economic transformation to better black people’s lives.

She said land should be used as surety to better black people’s financial circumstances‚ which is why it needed to be urgently addressed.

 

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