President Jacob Zuma believes The ANC comes first, not the country South Africa

Pietermaritzburg - President Jacob Zuma believes the African National Congress comes before the country

"I argued one time with someone who said the country comes first and I said as much as I understand that I think my organisation, the ANC, comes first," he said in his capacity as party president at the ANC KwaZulu-Natal elective conference on Saturday.

"Because those people, if they are not part of the ANC and there was no ANC they could be misled. They could be under... oppression forever."

He said the country needed a conscious organisation which could take the people "to their destination".

"The people without a revolutionary organisation, they can be in trouble, like many who have been in trouble."

Zuma said ANC members needed to understand themselves and the organisation.

The party did not count on individuals.

News24