The party says what Mathews Phosa is saying about DD Mabuza is outrageous and malicious in the extreme and is levelled to build Phosa’s campaign ahead of congress.
The ANC in Mpumalanga is totally “flummoxed” by allegations made against provincial leader DD Mabuza that he has a hood of dangerous gunmen as his followers in the province.
The party reacts after ANC presidential hopeful Mathews Phosa said the people wielding guns in a circulating video are Mabuza’s ‘privaye army’.
The gunmen in the video are seen firing shots in front of people during a gathering.
“There are quite a number of comrades I recognise there (in the video) from Nelspruit, from Barberton,” Phosa told journalist Xoli Mngambi on eNCA on Tuesday.
Naturally, there’ll be lots of debate about context & politics of this video & its source, Mathews Phosa. Is this behavior acceptable?@MyANC pic.twitter.com/YMTZZCF06l
— Xoli Mngambi (@XoliMngambi) December 6, 2017
RELATED: Phosa takes Mabuza to court over nomination of Unity leader
“And when we discuss with comrades, they’ve been used in BGMs to disrupt BGMs which were not in the favour of either Mr Unity or comrade DD (Mabuza),” Phosa said.
“They are there, they are the private army, they are a disruptive private army,” he added.
But the ANC in Mpumalanga is not happy with these comments.
The Mpumalanga ANC says first of all Mabuza is protected by the South African Police Service – 24hrs a day – and can not therefore have a private army.
They say all that Phosa was saying during the exclusive interview with Mngambi was just Phosa trying to build his dying campaign to be ANC president.
The party also said Phosa lied on TV when he said that overall he has been nominated by over 400 Mpumalanga delegates.
“We plead with Mr Phosa not to drown in the extravagance of his uncontrollable ambition to be ANC President,” provincial spokeswoman Sasekani Manzini said, “and ultimately loose the tittle of being a comrade,” she said.
“Comrade DD Mabuza is a law abiding citizen, who will never encourage the unfortunate events shown in that video,” Manzini said.
Phosa is also criticised for manufacturing lies in order to “create a shadow of doubt on the credible organisational process the ANC in Mpumalanga conducted in the build up to the upcoming 54th national conference.
They say he was supposed to lodge his complains with the party disputes committee than with the media.
“To the best of our knowledge and as confirmed by the recently held provincial general council (PGC), no branch in the province nominated Mr Phosa for the position of President and these nominations he is referring to can only be created and live in his mind,” Manzini said.
“We want to assure members and supporters of the ANC that the process for the 54th national conference administered by the PEC was credible and free of violence and intimidation. The PEC and the dispute committee of the national executive committee, attended all disputes lodged consistent with the guidelines of the 54th national conference,” she said.
(edited by ZK)
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