The regional firebrand leader of the ANC youth league in the Nkangala region has slammed the spokesman of the youth league in the region, saying a press statement he released a week ago was divisive and not the position of the youth league executive committee in the region.
Nkangala ANCYL chairman Mduduzi ‘Mswati’ Nkosi has criticised regional spokesman Tsekiso Machike for a media statement last week Tuesday calling on people not to join a march to the Kusile power station.
In the statement, dated 11 October 2016, Machike expressed the shock of the regional executive committee at the “bogus Kusile power station march” and called for order to be restored as anarchy could not be tolerated in the ANCYL.
“The ANC Youth League in Nkangala region is flabbergasted and utterly dismayed to learn that there is a march to Kusile power station on the 12th October 2016 organised by or on behalf of the ANCYL in Nkangala region without the consent of the REC by few individuals,” Machike wrote in the statement.
“We want to be categorically clear that such act of using the organisation to pursue agendas of individuals using genuine grievances of the underdeveloped and financially dislocated youth of the region from mainstream economy is tantamount to ill-discipline and appropriate internal organisational steps shall be taken to enforce discipline,” said Machike.
He added: “A caravanserai of marauding thugs cannot loot the organisation’s property and use it to push its business interests and be left unattended, such malady has a potential of a remarkable degree to liquidate the organisation and derail it in its quest to perform its core mandate”.
READ ALSO: Mswati defends ‘rights of youth’ to march to Kusile power station
But over the weekend, chairman Nkosi slammed Machike, saying the statement he released was “his personal thing” and that Machike didn’t consult the regional secretary, James Makhwiting, and him the regional chairman when he released it.
“Why when the mayor of eMalahleni [Lindiwe Ntshalintshali] was attacked by DA about the R1.5m car that was supposed to be purchased Machike as the spokesperson didn’t release a statement? Why?” Nkosi asked over the phone on Saturday.
“The treasurer and secretary called me about the march because it was happening in my sub-region [eMalahleni] but the spokesperson, who is also the deputy chairperson, just wrote and released a media statement without calling any REC member residing there in eMalahleni and asked ‘why these young people in the branches of the ANCYL are organising a march’, he never did.
“He just went ahead, undermining all of us and wrote the statement and that’s very divisive in my view. How can any spokesperson do that? Can Zizi Kodwa release a media statement without the secretary general and President of the ANC? Can he?
“I’m asking, can he? Myself I can’t use my position for my own things. If Machike is using the spokesperson position for himself in order to be deployed, that’s his problem. But history will judge him,” Nkosi, also known as Mswati and Adolf Hilter, said over the phone on Saturday evening.
Nkosi said “very soon” the regional executive committee of the ANCYL in Nkangala region will be calling a top five meeting where Machike will explain and they will “get to understand what the reason behind that press statement was”.
“Why must one person release a media statement and not include the chairperson and secretary, why? That’s what he must answer!
“I’ll just call a top five meeting and I’ll say ‘spokesman, here’s your statement, tell us what caused you to write a statement?’ then I’ll have to understand and we’ll still have to speak to the branches because now the branches also want to understand what caused such a statement to be released,” said Nkosi.
“Remember in a media statement there are political issues which as a chair I must edit and say ‘omit this, put this’ and if he writes things individually that are political and which need my attention as the political head of the league in the region, what to answer now in that thing he released?
“And his friends in eMalahleni are saying he has got protection and that whatever he is doing is because of protection that he enjoys from the top and you can even see the things they are saying on Facebook that they are no longer tackling political issues but they are getting personal,” Mswati said.
But Machike told 013NEWS it was not true the statement was released in his personal capacity.
He said: “That statement was released by the spokesperson of region and it means that is the view of the REC because I have got the responsibility to communicate the decisions of the REC and it is not true I never consulted anybody on that because the secretary was aware I was releasing a media statement”.
Machike said it was not necessary to consult Mswati because “according to the protocols it is the secretary and the spokesperson who are responsible for the communication of the organisation of the region and not the chairperson”.
(edited by ZK)
Send tips to editor@013.co.za