ANC KZN deputy chair Mike Mabuyakhulu takes the plunge

The deputy chairperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, Mike Mabuyakhulu, has stepped aside.

On Tuesday, the party’s national working committee (NWC) said members charged with corruption or other serious crimes must be suspended if they did not step aside from their positions.

In a letter sent to the office of the provincial secretary of the ANC in KZN, Mabuyakhulu said the decision to step aside stemmed from the principles of the ANC which indicated party leaders must be disciplined and the organisation’s constitution upheld.

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“In line with the position adopted by our movement, I hereby respectfully tender to the office of the provincial secretary that I am stepping aside from my position as the provincial deputy chairperson of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, with immediate effect as I hereby do.

“I must indicate that it has not been difficult for me to arrive at this decision, because I have done so before,” he added.

Mabuyakhulu said it was common cause that delegates to the 2018 provincial conference elected him to the position knowing fully at the time he had pending legal matters.

“As you are well aware, I was elected by the delegates of the ANC at the 2018 KwaZulu-Natal ANC provincial conference to the position of the provincial deputy chairperson of our glorious movement.

“As a disciplined member of the ANC, I accepted both the nomination as well as the subsequent election to this position because I sincerely believed that as part of the provincial leadership collective I could contribute meaningfully to the attainment of the ultimate objectives of the national democratic revolution.

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He said he accepted the nomination and election because he still believed he would be cleared of any wrongdoing by a competent court of law.

“I presume they did so for two reasons. The first reason is that the branches of our movement wanted to elect the leadership collective that would work tirelessly to renew and unite the ANC following the challenges we had before and after the 2015 provincial conference.

“They respected the principle enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, that everyone charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Mabuyakhulu said.

The party’s national executive committee is expected to issue a comprehensive statement on all members who have been asked to step aside after convening its meeting over the weekend.

Pule Letshwiti-Jones