ANC postpones meeting where ‘fierce debate’ on VBS-linked leaders expected

The ANC’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, which was expected to hear fierce debate about the reinstatement of two Limpopo leaders linked to the VBS-heist, was postponed on Monday.

Members were told it was due to unforeseen circumstances.

The party’s national chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, who chairs the meeting, was admitted to hospital after contracting Covid-19 last week.

Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu announced via a statement that Mantashe had been hospitalised following the advice of a family doctor.

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While no agenda was sent out for the day’s scheduled meeting, some in the NWC had hoped to use the session to put the reinstatement of Limpopo’s provincial deputy chairperson Florence Radzilani and treasurer Danny Msiza back on the table.

The national executive committee (NEC) had resolved that the two should be reinstated. They had been suspended after being implicated in advocate Terry Motau’s report on the widespread looting of VBS Mutual Bank, which ultimately led to its collapse.

Insiders told News24 that some of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s allies had wanted to poke holes at processes used to reinstate the two, but the ANC’s deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, told the publication last week that all regions in the province were in agreement with the decision taken by the NEC.

The ANC’s alliance partners, however, not only rejected it, but also refused to meet with the party to discuss the matter.

Duarte, in the interview, said it was a case of justice delayed being justice denied. She said the two had voluntarily stepped aside to allow for due processes, but had still not been brought to book, even by the courts.

Last week, the party called off a meeting of the Top 6 officials in support of its treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, following the death of his wife. He also went into quarantine because one of his staffers had contracted the virus.

The ANC, like many others, moved its day-to-day business to virtual platforms after the coronavirus outbreak.

It also lost some leaders to the pandemic, including KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Ricardo Mthembu and North West cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Gordon Kegakilwe.

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