Mabuza is being accused of using her to continue his rule in the province.
Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtsweni is allegedly the side-chick of ANC deputy national leader David ‘DD’ Mabuza.
This was said by a bishop who was addressing ANC members during David Dube’s campaign to become Mpumalanga ANC chair in the Secunda township of eMbalenhle a past weekend, Mpumalanga News has reported.
Bishop Max Maumela of the Faith Harvest Bible wants Dube to fill the Mpumalanga ANC position left by Mabuza when he got elected the deputy president on 18 December 2018 and was given the opportunity to speak at the Dube event.
The newspaper said the bishop said Mtsweni is Mabuza’s lover and that was the reason he got the position – used as a proxy for him to continue ruling Mpumalanga from Gauteng.
David Dube Who wants to be ANC Mpumalanga chairman.
The bishop further said that Mabuza is a murderer, according to the reports.
But the Mpumalanga ANC finds these comments belittling women, defaming Mabuza and is now fighting them back.
A case of defamation against the bishop has now been opened.
“Having a female Premier was supposed to be celebrated,”
ANCWL provincial secretary Lydia Moroane said during a press briefing held at party provincial headquarters in Mbombela on Monday this week (6 Aug), “and especially by bishops”.
“He accused us of using our bodies to get positions. He is undermining us,” Moroane said during the briefing.
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Mtsweni, who was largely unknown and who is not an ANC regional or provincial executive committee member, was hand-picked by Mabuza in February 2018 to become the acting Premier when President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Mabuza the deputy president, following the forced resignation of Jacob Zuma as President on the night of 14 February.
She was the MEC for traditional affairs in the province – a position she got in 2014 when Mabuza returned to power as the Premier for a second-term. In March 2018, Mtsweni was elected the Premier having acted for almost a month.
“The role of the bishop is to pray, to ensure that the ANC can continue to lead, revolutionise our people and to better the party,” said Moroane of Maumela.
“And I do not know if he forgets his role,” the provincial women’s league leader said.
(edited by MLM)
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