ANC responds to the “Tokyo for President” posters

By Rhodé Marshall
04 October 2007

The African National Congress (ANC) says it regards the posters that have been put up in some parts of the Eastern Cape reading “Tokyo for President” as unfortunate.

“We as the ANC don’t know who is responsible for the poster but we would like to say that we are distancing ourselves from it.

We urge all our members to approach the selection of leadership according to the established principles and traditions of the movement,” says a spokesperson for the ANC, Tiyani Rikhotso.

He says the party welcomes statements by a spokesperson for Tokyo Sexwale that Sexwale is unaware of the posters.

“The party is concerned that some people whether inside or outside the organisation may use such tactics to influence internal constitutional processes,” says Rikhotso.

The ANC branches will spend the month of September holding general meetings to nominate leaders for the election of the National Executive Committee.


Political Analyst, Professor Keith Gotschalk says that it would only be members of the ANC who would distribute such posters, trying to influence the nominationa of others.


"One can only assume that it is ANC members lobbying to have Tokyo Sexwale nominated as the as the next leader of the ANC, to put up posters as part of their campaign," says Gotschalk.