Tim Tebeila joins fray for Limpopo ANC top job

Intense lobbying for the Limpopo ANC top job has begun with one of the province’s richest businesspeople throwing his hat in the ring.

Yesterday prominent mining magnate Tim Tebeila announced his interest to become the party’s next provincial treasurer, a position currently held by another business tycoon, Danny Msiza.

Tebeila, popularly known as “friend of the ANC” because over the years he funded party elective conferences both at national and provincial levels, told The Citizen yesterday that he was ready for the party’s provincial plum job.

Tebeila is contesting the position against Makoma Makhurupetsa, who is currently ANC provincial deputy secretary and MEC for community safety and transport.

“I have been in the finance and mining space for more than 30 years. I have no doubt that under my tutelage, the province’s economy would swell and the escalating poverty would become a thing of the past,” Tebeila said.

According to Tebeila, leadership is not about superiority or amassing wealth, but about creating opportunities for others and improving the economy for the better.

“I have over the years created over 2 000 permanent and temporary jobs for young graduates in South Africa and beyond the country’s borders.

“I therefore believe that the experience I have acquired over the years in the finance sector could best be utilised to take the ANC forward,” he said.

The articulate mining mogul claimed he had been approached by big names at Luthuli House who believed that the ANC finances in the province would be in good hands under him.

Tebeila was praised by Leon Mateta, ANC Ward 7 councillor in the Greater Tzaneen municipality and chairperson for the Siyasonke branch in the MarkShope sub-region, as a “workaholic” and a “leader who genuinely has the interests of all of the the people at heart”.

“The time is ripe for branches of the ANC to know exactly where their bread is buttered,” added Mateta.

Tebeila owns several coal mining companies in Limpopo and North-West and manufacturing and tele-communication companies in Lephalale, Polokwane.

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