ANC secretary-general hopeful Fikile Mbalula with ANC Free State interim leader Mxolisi Dukwana during a meeting with branch members in Mangaung. Photo: Supplied
Despite declining voter support for the African National Congress (ANC), secretary-general hopeful Fikile Mbalula, is adamant that only its factional infighting could bring the governing party to its knees, and not opposition parties.
Mbalula took his campaign under President Cyril Ramaphosa’s slate to his home province of the Free State.
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He was in Polokwane, Limpopo, over the weekend talking to party members as campaigning and horse trading intensifies just three days before the 55th national elective conference.
The ANC’s head of elections was accompanied by Ramaphosa‘s close confidant Mondli Gungubele and head of ANC presidency, Sibongile Besani, who also hails from the province. Interim provincial leader Mxolisi Dukwana and the newly elected Mangaung regional leadership heaped praises on Mbalula.
The gathering came a day after Ramaphosa’s opponent Zweli Mkhize and secretary-general contender Phumulo Masualle addressed the opposing Mangaung faction, which had held a parallel conference and elected own leaders too.
The former ANCYL leader told branch members gathered at Paradise Hall in Bochabela that the ANC is a “big organisation and is the people’s movement”.
“The ANC is everywhere. [EFF leader Julius] Malema is trying hey, but he’s finding it difficult because the ANC is a big elephant.
“The only defeat could be our own members who are unhappy [and] disgruntled, that’s where the defeat will come from.”
Regarding Tuesday’s Parliament’s sitting to consider the Section 89 expert panel report, Mbalula said no opposition party would be allowed to recall an ANC president.
He told the audience that he was vocal against the removal of former president Jacob Zuma, who faced at least eight motions-of-no-confidence in Parliament, and was doing the same for Ramaphosa.
“You can’t be supporting a motion that rejects your own president. If Ramaphosa has to leave, it will be the ANC that recalls him or him deciding by himself, not opposition parties.
“There are comrades who are hell-bent on removing the president. They even demand a secret ballot. Zuma faced 8 motions and we opposed all of them. And some of the motions were damning, but I said Zuma is going nowhere… He was ANC president, we elected him. We held a secret ballot and we defeated the opposition in all those motions.”
He also blasted Mangaung ANC councillors who voted with opposition parties in council. An investigation by a firm of attorneys unearthed ghost workers who drew millions in salaries while sitting at home.
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The ghost workers were mainly members of the ANC in the region, who included Mbalula’s own brother, Jabu.
“They can’t even convince one voter to vote for the ANC but they stand with the opposition in council. What is that?” he asked, staring at the audience.
After a bruising national executive committee (NEC) last week, beleaguered Ramaphosa faces another hurdle over the Phala Phala farm fallout in a form of a parliamentary sitting on Tuesday.
MPs will meet at the Cape Town City Hall, the designated venue after Parliament building burned down earlier this year, to decide whether to adopt the damning Section 89 expert panel report on the 2020 burglary a the president’s Limpopo game farm.
The panel found that the president has a case to answer on the matter, but Ramaphosa denied any wrongdoing and decided to take the matter to the Constitutional Court for judicial review and nullification of the report.
Before Mbalula took to the podium, Gungubele described him as “young and energetic”.
“We are going to conference and are going to give you a new secretary-general. We want a secretary-general who is not going to be scared of the ill-disciplined, who will confront all leaders irrespective of your status.
“We want a young and energetic secretary-general, and it is this one here. We want a young leader who is going to bring integrity to the organisation and make sure that those deployed as mayors, councillors and ministers do their work.”
He added that Ramaphosa’s renewal and unity project in the ANC will continue until “all thieves are arrested”.
Gungubele said: “Renewal started in 2018, to straighten things out in the ANC. We fought against the corrupt who were collapsing government through their thievery, meant to benefit themselves and their families.
“All fraudsters are on the run now. You see them on TV, hear them on radio, shouting land! Reserve Bank!… All the things they know we have resolved on, except that we couldn’t get a two thirds majority in Parliament on the land issue because of those who are corrupt in this organisation.”
He accused Ramaphosa’s detractors of trying to “drown the president’s programme of arresting all the thieves”.
Mbalula received 749 branch nominations and faces stiff competition from former KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli, who amassed 1 225 nominations.
Eastern Cape ex-premier Masualle is the second leading contender for the post with 889 nominations.
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