After Gordhan, Mbalula vows to ‘attend’ to ‘freelancer’ Derek Hanekom

African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has vowed to “attend to” former tourism minister Derek Hanekom following his comments on social media at the weekend.

Hanekom took to social media at the weekend criticising Mbalula for his statement about Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s performance in his portfolio.

Gordhan “will be moved” if he cannot do his job, the secretary-general warned.

The comment was not received well by, among others, Hanekom, who asked Mbalula about his own performance when he was a minister.

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“When you make a statement like this, you need to explain why you are not making a statement on a number of poor performing ministers.

“Are you satisfied with your own performance when you were a minister?” asked Hanekom.

On Monday, Mbalula used his address at the Local Government Intervention Workshop in Benoni to hit back at Hanekom.

The secretary-general said he would “attend to” Hanekom, who supposedly behaves like a “freelancer” who comments on everything.

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But an unmoved Hanekom said he would “continue commenting on social media on matters that I believe merit comment, including statements made by ANC leaders. But I won’t react to every reaction to my comments”.

‘ANC can’t be shattered into nothing’

The secretary-general further called out fellow comrades for being afraid of correcting “lies” that are being said about the ruling party.

“There’s one thing we must never accept, comrades, and that is to be distorted.

“It has been a very long time that the ANC has accepted to be distorted. I don’t know what you’re afraid of from some of these political parties,” said Mbalula.

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“I don’t know what they have for some of you, even to mention a political party by name is difficult, they’re scared. How can a big animal like this be shattered into nothing by small parties? You can’t! You must respond to the lies that are peddled about the ANC and not claim its victories.

“On Twitter and everywhere else they say the ANC is a racist party and we have accepted that. We shouldn’t do that.”

Mbalula on councillor deployment

Mbalula further touched on the importance of deploying skilled councillors to municipalities as that affected the performance of these municipalities.

“We need to consider the impact of councillor selection and deployment. It is a concern that many councillors elected in 2021 were new to the role, and that there is such a frequent turnover of senior management in councils. This has resulted in a loss of skills and experience and institutional memory,” said Mbalula.

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“One of the main challenges in local government is human capital. We therefore need to prioritise the selection of skilled and knowledgeable political leaders and senior management that is suited to the tasks at hand.

“We need to consider insourcing the essential functions of the municipality so that we can attract and retain young people with skills.”

This, according to Mbalula, would encourage voter participation in elections and eventually reduce coalition governments.

“Our experience has demonstrated that coalition governments are incapable of effectively driving development, providing quality services or ensuring proper accountability,” he said.

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“The question of employing people without qualifications at municipal government level in terms of municipal managers is a problem of us, comrades.

“We employed people without qualifications, we put them there. It’s a question of us making decisions and guide councils appropriately on the local sphere.

“These circumstances create conditions for fraud and corruption, which is why many of those with criminal intent seek to perpetuate conditions of dysfunction in municipalities.”