ANCWL slams Collen Maine for ‘selling out’ to Ramaphosa after Nasrec

In a clip from Thursday’s ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) memorial service in Soweto for Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the league’s deputy secretary-general had few kind words for ANC Youth League president Collen Maine.

Maine had on Wednesday tried to excuse his support of and involvement with the Guptas by blaming North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo for introducing him to them.

He has since endured much criticism for his U-turn on a family he once fervently supported and who allegedly helped him to buy a big house in Pretoria.

Addressing mourners at a memorial service in Potchefstroom on Wednesday, a visibly grief-stricken Maine had said former president Jacob Zuma did not introduce him to the family but Mahumapelo did.

“Mama Winnie refused to go to the Guptas when many of us were willing. We must be honest about this comrades.”

Mahumapelo responded to the allegations in a WhatsApp message on Thursday in which he likened the ANC Youth League leader and former MEC to a reckless driver who had caused an accident and was now looking for a scapegoat.

“Reckless drivers who cause accidents on the roads must never blame the driving school for introducing them to driving,” Mahumapelo said.

ANCWL deputy secretary-general Thandi Moraka called Maine a sellout for having so swiftly switched his support from Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to President Cyril Ramaphosa – allegedly in the hope of becoming a minister – after the latter became president at Nasrec in December. Maine had been firmly behind Dlamini-Zuma until she lost.

Moraka said Maine was a “sellout of note” who should stand down from his league position since he was playing the “politics of the stomach”.

She added: “Immediately after Nasrec Comrade Collen went to Comrade Cyril and said to him: ‘We want to apologise for having supported Comrade Nkosazana.’

“But we want to state it categorically here that that apology was not representing us as the youth of this country.

“We believed in Comrade Nkosazana, and we can’t be crucified for having supported a woman.”

She said that Maine had confessed to people in Potchefstroom that he had been captured by the Guptas.