
Claws between her and Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane are out as Mpumalanga prepares for its 13th elective conference.
ANC acting secretary Lindiwe Ntshalintshali is currently positioning her fight in the Mpumalanga province to greater heights, taking the victim role in internal factional battles while reining in those who don’t obey party rules.
She told City Press over the past weekend how the attacks on her by supporters of Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane has made her “stronger”.
“This has made me to be more principled and to take the hardest decisions to build the ANC,” she told the national Sunday weekly.
Described as “a bully” by some of her own female comrades in ANC corridors and as a “cool and strong woman” by her supporters, Ntshalintshali heightens the fight to stop Mtshweni-Tsipane’s ambition to be elected the new leader of the Mpumalanga ANC in December 2019.
She is currently in close contact with Luthuli House to assist the party with any evidence it would need to institute disciplinary actions against some of Mtshweni-Tsipane’s key supporters like Nkomazi strongman Ngrai Ngwenya.
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013NEWS has seen a litany of WhatsApp chat screenshots taken from a Nkomazi ANC group where plans to “fight” Ntshalintshali are being discussed.
They involve the threat to use dangerous weapons, like guns, to “deal with this woman”.
“We are taken like useless creatures here in Nkomazi. They never knew kutsi kuBrika bo Bova (they never knew here we stop even bulldogs),” one of Mtshweni-Tsipane supporters said in the WhatsApp group mobilising for her to be ANC chairwoman.
Party national secretary Ace Magashule in the letter dated 29 July 2019 to Ngwenya and in which Ngwenya is notified about the party’s decision to place him on suspension while disciplinary actions are being brought against him, said Ntshalintshali “has continued to receive threats of physical harm to her person”.
Magashule said the threats to the person of the senior ANC woman are by people “purportedly acting” on Ngwenya’s behalf and therefore the national executive committee (NEC) has taken the decision to “summarily suspend your membership with immediate effect without soliciting a response or comment from you before imposing representation”.

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Also Mtshweni-Tsipane could be charged by Magashule, this paper has reliably been told.
It is still not clear what Tsipane did but also actions against other regional and PEC leaders could be recommended soon as Ntshalintshali and Magashule rein in on those who “don’t obey rules”.

Ntshalintshali’s supporters want her to contest Mtshweni-Tsipane when the party holds its 13th provincial congress in December 2019 but this is opposed by another grouping, also opposed to the Mtshweni-Tsipane bloc, that wants acting chairman Mandla Ndlovu to be DD Mabuza’s successor once and for all and Ntshalintshali to retain her current post as deputy secretary.
The groupings want Mtshweni-Tsipane to be elected the first additional member of the PEC after December.
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All of them loyal to DD Mabuza, but with Ntshalintshali seen as navigating towards the Magashule bloc as tensions at Luthuli House continue to boil over, they argue about the “issue of capacity” and saying Mtshweni-Tsipane has never been in the PEC.
They say she should “start somewhere” and then rise to the top 5 at a later congress.
“If Refilwe becomes the additional member of the PEC she will be able to understand the inner workings of the PEC.
“Because you must remember chief that this comrade is coming from a branch and has never led the organisation at such high structure. So you can’t build the ANC like that,” one of Ndlovu’s lobbyists said Monday morning this week.
The Ndlovu grouping wants him as chair, Nkangala leader Speedy Mashilo as deputy chair, Gert Sibande leader Muzi Chirwa as secretary, Ntshalintshali as deputy secretary and Peter Nyoni as the treasurer. Then it wants Mtshweni-Tsipane as the first additional member.
But another slate currently making the rounds on the social networks doesn’t want Mashilo.
Instead, it wants Ntshalintshali as the chair and Ndlovu as the deputy chair, Chirwa as secretary, spokeswoman Sasekani Manzini as the deputy secretary and PEC member Pat Ngomane as treasurer.
This slate wants Nyoni as the additional member as well as Piennar strongman Mandla Msibi.
The Mtshweni-Tsipane slate also has Chirwa as secretary but is still not clear who they want as her deputy and Chirwa’s deputy and treasurer.
Ngwenya’s suspension has quite terribly paralysed the Mtshweni-Tsipane bloc.
He is suspended together with another regional leader, a female comrade, Phindile Nkuna, and both are yet to receive their charge sheets before 29 August 2019.
This follows the chaos that took place on 17 July 2019 where chairs were thrown at Ntshalintshali while she announced the names of the people should serve in the newly established Bohlabela-eHlanzeni regional task team (RTT).
(edited by ZK)
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