ANC secretary general Ace Magashule says he is prepared to testify at the commission of inquiry into state capture, if he is implicated in any wrongdoing.
Magashule made the remarks during a lecture he delivered to members of the South African Students' Congress (Sasco) in the Free State on Friday.
In a move straight out of former president Jacob Zuma's playbook, Magashule chose his home province as the place where he made his first public speaking engagement following a blistering address by ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa to those alleged to be plotting his removal from his roles as leader of the party and the country.
Magashule has been linked to claims of a plot to unseat Ramaphosa, which gained traction after a photograph was published in the Sunday Times newspaper showing him at a Durban hotel with ANC Women's League secretary general Meokgo Matuba, ousted ANC North West chairperson Supra Mahumapelo and Zuma.
"Let me tell you, nobody can stop me from meeting president Jacob Zuma. I will even invite president Jacob Zuma to come and talk to you as students," Magashule told cheering and clapping Sasco members.
"There is no ANC leadership which I am part of, that is going to stop me and many others from meeting president Jacob Zuma," he said of the former leader he kept referring to as president.
"I am not a product of white people. I am not a product of capital," he added, in what seemed like a veiled jab at Ramaphosa who has amassed a fortune through his business interests over the years.
"There are people who are products of the white man in the ANC."
The ANC secretary general said he had no time to plot against the current ANC leadership.
Magashule and Zuma have been placed at the centre of the state capture project, along with the latter's close associates, the Gupta family - who are accused of having had undue influence over the former president and his executive and using that influence to loot South Africa's state-owned enterprises.
"People are talking state capture, I am prepared to go to that commission if I am also implicated," said Magashule.
He added that this would give him the opportunity to "relate many other stories" to the commission spearheaded by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
"If you want to charge us as leaders, you must take us one by one to check which leader is part of white business," said Magashule.