The ANC is suggesting that people heckled the president because the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) previously called on him to step down.
The president got the cold shoulder at the federation’s main May Day rally in Bloemfontein on Monday where he was not even allowed to address workers.
Scuffles broke out at the rally between those in support of and against the president.
“There was no winners, we’ve been embarrassed by this.”
ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa says Monday’s developments are regrettable.
The party says the embarrassing incident is the result of premature pronouncements by Cosatu and the SACP on the ANC succession.
“The incident is a consequence of what the ANC has always advised. Those premature public pronouncements undermine our efforts to foster unity in the alliance.”
ANC Free State chairperson Ace Magashule believes external forces are at play.
“This is the time when South Africa is highly infiltrated my brother, it doesn’t need science. It doesn’t need Marx and Lenin, we’re highly infiltrated. People are there to divide us.”
He says the president also felt embarrassed as workers heckled him.
