‘Whoever you are is not important if you don’t respect resolutions of ANC’ – Magashule takes a jibe at Mboweni

“Whoever you are, (or) how important you are, is not important if you don’t respect the resolutions of the ANC conferences,” ANC secretary general Ace Magashule said on Sunday.

Many at the ANC birthday event in KwaZulu-Natal believed Magashule was taking a jibe at Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.

This follows Mboweni’s tweet earlier this month where he said he was sure the ANC adopted the wrong resolution on the South African Reserve Bank.

“As a longstanding member of the ANC and its leadership structures, I know and understand our resolutions. I don’t need lectures on that. But on the SARB, I am convinced that we adopted a wrong resolution. What do we want to achieve? Our strategic focus: structural economic reforms,” he tweeted.

The ANC wants the SARB nationalised.

“Beware of wedge drivers who wear ANC T-shirts, but don’t speak the language of the ANC,” Magashule told thousands of ANC supporters in Port Shepstone, on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, who were attending the party’s 108th anniversary celebration.

Magashule said the conference decisions were binding on “all of us as the leaders of the ANC”.

Later, Magashule was quick to defend himself when journalists asked whether he was speaking about Mboweni during his address.

“I’ve never talked about any name, but I’m saying to members of the ANC, wherever they are, that those who don’t respect the decisions taken by highest decision making body of the ANC, whoever you are (or) how important you are, is not important because the ANC believes in collective leadership.

“Resolutions of the national conference are resolutions of the highest decision making body. In the history of the ANC, we don’t talk about ‘I’, we’ve always talked about ‘We’, that’s why we say collective leadership,” he said.

Eskom, SAA won’t be privatised

Magashule also reiterated that the ANC was against the privatisation of state-owned entities (SOEs), especially Eskom and South African Airways.

“The president has said no to privatisation. What else do you want when the president has spoken and the NEC has said so?” he asked.

He said the ANC would ensure the state remained the owner of Eskom and SAA.

Prior to Magashule taking the stage, Kwazulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala also addressed the crowd.

He also called for the ANC government to “make sure” that SOEs remained under government ownership.

Zikalala used the platform to take a jibe at South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe for his “Africa loves Trump” statement.

“We have no friend in the form of Donald Trump,” he said.

Motsepe told Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos that: “Africa loves America. Africa loves you. It’s very, very important. We want America to do well. We want you to do well. The success of America is the success of the rest of the world.”

Zikalala labelled Trump as an “imperialist and barbarian who only thinks about killing people”.

He said rich people “who go overseas” had a tendency of only thinking about their next pay.

“We’ve got nothing to benefit from Donald Trump. It is him who is causing disorder in Iran,” Zikalala said.

Zikalala said the ANC was firm in its fight for human dignity. He said they would not just “fold our hat” just because Trump was rich. Folding a hat is a gesture used to show respect in some parts of the country.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.