Duarte: ANC needs a leader who will stand up to mining bosses
Mpumalanga - The ANC needs a leader who isn't afraid of confronting mining bosses, said deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte at a campaign for presidential hopeful Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Duarte was joined by ANCWL president Bathabile Dlamini, ANC Youth League President Collen Maine and his deputy Desmond Moila.
It was Dlamini-Zuma's first campaign visit to Mpumalanga on Saturday.
Mpumalanga is sending the second largest delegation to the ANC's elective conference in December, making it one of the kingmakers in the race for ANC leadership.
Despite ANC Mpumalanga chairperson David Mabuza's name coming up to serve as deputy president to Dlamini-Zuma, he was absent from the campaign because he was allegedly not feeling well.
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However, he was praised several times at the event with thousands of ANC supporters responding through applause; and cheering every time they heard "viva DD viva" coming from the stage.
Duarte threw her weight behind Dlamini-Zuma telling those in attendance: "Its time for a leader who doesn't talk big and do little but implements big and talks little."
Without mentioning any names, she told the crowd that she didn't want the party to be run by someone who would sell it to the highest bidder.
She also asked the media to help unite the country.
"Journalists of our country, you are South African, you must unite this country. You must be able to write about unity instead of destruction. Talk about programmes of the ANC," she said.
ANCYL's Collen Maine also focused some of his attention on the media, saying they would not be told who to nominate by media houses and accused journalists of being unfair to Dlamini-Zuma.
"We want to request the media to report fairly on our candidate," said Maine. "We know we are on the right side of history," he added.
Maine said he knew the former AU Commission Chair would deliver radical economic transformation.