Awks! Magashule says his successor Mbalula is ‘still a boy’

Former ANC secretary-general, Ace Magashule, has seemingly taken a swipe at Fikile Mbalula referring to him as a boy in politics.

Mbalula, who is the current Minister of Transport, replaced Magashule as ANC secretary-general at the governing party’s national elective conference in December.

The position had been vacant and without a permanent official since Magashule was suspended from the ANC in May 2021 over charges of fraud, corruption, theft and money-laundering for his alleged role in the Free State R255 million asbestos scandal.

‘Still a boy’

Ahead of his appearance in the Bloemfontein High Court, Magashule said Mbalula was one of the people whom he groomed into politics.

“He comes from Botshabelo. In the 80s, he was one of the boys I was looking after and he is still a boy,” Magashule said on Friday.

The former ANC secretary-general revealed that Mbalula had even reached out to him in attempt to repair their sour relationship.

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“He has talked to me about the past, and us not having a good relationship [saying] we must fix it. I recorded him so that when the media starts running around – you will be able to see that people who pretend are not what they say [they are]”.

He further said he trained Mbalula and other comrades when they were still young despite his successor disputing his revolutionary role in exile.

“Sometimes he says I was not in exile. [He says] I was only in internal exile because he chooses what to say [but] these are the boys I looked after. Most of the Free State guys I took them of South Africa into exile… I trained them in the underground,” Magashule continued.

Magashule and his co-accused’s asbestos corruption case has since been postponed to 5 May 2023.

Past brawls

Mbalula previously publicly criticised Magashule in 2017, saying the then Free State premier would destroy what was left of the ANC if he was elected as the party’s secretary-general.

“Ace Magashule is a definite no no no, the man will finish what is remaining of our movement. He will kill it,” Mbalula tweeted at the time.

On Friday, Magashule responded to this Mbalula’s comment: “That movement was finished long ago. You don’t see the leadership of the ANC amongst the people”.

In 2019, Magashule hit back at Mbalula after the current ANC secretary-general claimed that the governing party would have dipped to 40% had President Cyril Ramaphosa not won the presidential race two years earlier.

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“People are electing the ANC. It is not about any individual. How do you predict that? Is Comrade Mbalula saying that I was not going to be part of the campaign if the leader was somebody else?” Magashule said.

Mbalula threw in another punch, saying Magashule was not responding to him, but to a “figment of his imagination“.

Last year, Mbalula also weighed in on Magashule’s tenure saying: “The last [secretary-general], shame, didn’t have time to prove himself. He was faced with a lot of challenges and having to defend himself”.