Mpumalanga MK threatens spilling of blood over list irregularities

The solders complain that processes were not followed.

Mpumalanga’s Umkhonto we Sizwe Council has threatened a violent “mass action” if President Cyril Ramaphosa doesn’t intervene in the alleged irregularities of a recently held ANC provincial list conference.

The threats by the ANC soldiers comes after the ANCYL in the province expressed similar dissatisfaction over what they called “abnormalities” in the outcomes of the conference.

The conference was held on 9 December 2018 at the Mbombela stadium to elect leaders who should go to the legislature and Parliament.

The MK Council believed the outcomes of the conference were rigged and “perverted”.

City Press reports that the MK Council held a press conference Wednesday this week and vowed to turn things bloody if the list conference is not suspended.

One of its provincial leaders, Jacques Modipane, said that the civil society was on the brink of taking matters into its own hands due to the corruption engulfing the Mpumalanga ANC.

“The MK Council has advised the structures in Mpumalanga to hold on fire until all the internal avenues are exhausted and advised civil society and the ANC to assemble a team to see the President Ramaphosa and bring to his attention this imminent disaster looming in Mpumalanga,” Modipane told the national weekly after their Wednesday press briefing.

“We want to say to the president to meet the team before Christmas,” he said.

“Our warning to the president is that, please see this team. We don’t want to collect bodies on the streets, people not able to go to work and schools being disturbed,” he said, adding processes were not followed when conducting the conference.

In their statement this week, the ANCYL on the other hand said the “abnormal” outcomes of the Mpumalanga list conference were not the true reflection of the views of the branches.

“Young, competent and capable leaders were removed from the consolidated list and replaced with old retiring people,” provincial spokesman Bheki Sithole said.

Sithole added the exclusion of the youth in favour of old people was the result of “an abusive dominant faction in the PEC of the ANC in our province”.

“The ANC in Mpumalanga undermines the youth,” Sithole cried.

“It is a tendency that undermines not only the youth but the branches of the ANC as well. It’s a gross misconduct at worst, a tendency very foreign to the values of the National Liberation Movement,” he said.

Since DD Mabuza left Mpumalanga after his election as deputy president in Nasrec last year the fight for the control of the ANC has intensified – with his aligned faction doing all it can to cling to power.

As a consequence the province has failed to convene a provincial general council to elect Mabuza’s replacement as provincial chairperson, while having another group taking Mabuza’s aligned faction to court, calling for the disbandment of the PEC in favour of a task team that would take the province to a conference.

ANC acting provincial leader Mandla Ndlovu didn’t answer his phone.

(edited by MLM)

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