Former African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has called on schools to transform, saying learners are taught that the ANC is "useless" and "corrupt".
Dlamini-Zuma addressed a crowd of ANC members at an ANC Cadres Forum in the Free State on Thursday afternoon. She is widely considered to be running for the position of ANC president when Jacob Zuma's term as head of the party comes to an end at the end of the year. It is believed she is Zuma's favourite to succeed him, and the event will be seen as a campaigning event.
Dlamini-Zuma told the crowd that it was time for the party to "close ranks" and ensure that its message was properly construed.
"We must build the capacity to implement. Our young people need to know what must be done. All of us need to look at what our kids are being taught in model C schools. They are being taught it's 'us versus the ANC'," she said.
"This is why they think colonialism is good."
She said this was not just propaganda, but that school children are taught that the ANC is "useless" and "corrupt", and that the country would not be a democracy until an opposition party governed.
Dlamini-Zuma said the impression created was that to pass, you had to discredit the ANC.
Dlamini-Zuma also said the country's mineral resources needed to be used to enrich the country, saying it was time that the government had control of the economy. She said without controlling the "financial sector", the government could not control the economy.