Hanekom blasts Mbalula over links to Guptas, urges him to ‘come clean’

African National Congress MP and former tourism minister Derek Hanekom has challenged Police Minister Fikile Mbalula in a Twitter war over the ANC elective conference.

The police minister used an image from 2006 to post about how money was allegedly being exchanged ahead of the ANC conference this weekend. Twitter users accused Mbalula of posting fake news and lying because the image used was taken from an article posted on News24 almost 10 years ago.

Mbalula said he used it to illustrate what happens and the context of the image was not important as the message he was relaying.

The minister didn’t take too kindly to this and responded, asking Hanekom where he should go to.

The MP then slammed Mbalula for his alleged links with the controversial Gupta family, and urged him to “do yourself a favour and come clean”.

Mbalula responded by saying: “As you know, I’m the first person to speak out against the Gupta in the ANC NEC.”

The argument continued, with Hanekom reminding Mbalula he had been wanting President Jacob Zuma to step down for more than a year. Mbalula went on to defend Zuma, before amicably ending the “battle of ideas”.

This is not the first time the two have gone to war on Twitter. In August this year, Mbalula tweeted that lie-detector tests might be worth using on MPs to ferret out who had voted against President Jacob Zuma in parliament.

Hanekom urged him to take a stand against the Guptas and told him to focus on his day job.

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