The province is not even imagining him becoming the ANC’s next President.
Mpumalanga province is currently doing away with anything that is linked to deputy president David Mabuza, including his allies in government.
The province is currently firmly behind secretary-general Ace Magashule but its not clear if they will support his bid of being the President in the 2022 national elective conference.
ANC acting chairman Mandla Ndlovu and acting secretary Lindiwe Ntshalintshali are seen as Magashule’s allies while Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane is aligned with President Cyril Ramaphosa and former Premier Mathews Phosa.
This week ANC provincial treasurer Vusi Shongwe said comrades should just thank Tsipane for ushering Mpumalanga into an era where everyone was now “free” to say anything they want without the fear of being victimised.
“Let’s just accept it comrades that comrade Refilwe is a powerful woman. All of us are now able to speak freely because of her,” Shongwe said to thunderous applause.
Acting director-general Peter Nyoni said the province is fast moving to a time when Mabuza will be “conquered”.
Referring to him as “Mount Everest”, Nyoni thanked Tsipane for uniting comrades who were not allowed to unite while Mabuza ran Mpumalanga.
“Comrades are reminded that coming from the past we are now faced with Mount Everest and we must say to Mount Everest that we are going to defeat you as we are filled with courage and determination, that this time Mount Everest we are going to conquer you,” Nyoni said to thunderous applause at Hendrina’s Cosmos Hall on Sunday.
Four weeks ago Gert Sibande ANCYL leader Thulasizwe Thomo urged acting chairman Mandla Ndlovu to take the ANC campaign trucks from Mabuza’s Barberton home and register them in the treasurer’s registry.
“Secondly, when we speak about the renewal of the ANC we mean that when you call us to discuss issues of the ANC you don’t call us to your home. You must call us at Che Masilela House or the regional offices of the ANC,” Thomo said in reference to Mabuza’s running of the Mpumalanga ANC and government from his Barberton house.
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Thomo said the ANC in the province has been a “mockery for quite some time”.
“Now we must take the ANC back to its members, that time of renewing the ANC has arrived,” the youth league regional leader said.
All the lobby camps – Focus, led by ANC acting chairman Mandla Ndlovu, the DDD21 of former deputy provincial chair David Dube, the Mayibuye of deputy tourism minister Fish Mahlalela and the RMT21 of Tsipane don’t even imagine Mabuza becoming the next President of the ANC, saying Mabuza had abused them for too long and turned them into laughing stocks.
After months of not seeing eye to eye between Tsipane and Mabuza, Tsipane on 24 February 2021 drew first blowd and fired four of Mabuza’s allies from her cabinet and replaced them with leaders who are sympathetic to her like Busi Shiba whom she made the new MEC of cooperative governance, Vusi Mkhatshwa (new finance MEC), Mohita Latchminarain (new public works MEC) and Nkangala leader Speedy Mashilo (human settlement).
The fired MECs were Gabisile Tshabalala, Norah Mahlangu, Pat Ngomane and Gillion Mashego – who are all Mabuza’s allies and belonged to the Mabuza supported Ngci camp that wanted Tsipane as the chair and Ngomane as the secretary.
But now the camp no longer wants Tsipane owing to her differences with Mabuza and has instead gone to fetch Nkangala district municipal speaker Lucky Ndinisa to contest as the chair on the Ngci ticket.
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Tsipane is now contesting the space on her own newly formed camp called RMT21, and which is supported by most of her allies in the Ngci camp like safety and security MEC Vusi Shongwe, acting director-general Peter Nyoni, Gert Sibande ANC strongman Sibusiso ‘The Great’ Sgudla and health MEC Sasekani Manzini.
Ngomane said differences between comrades in the province didn’t mean that they are now “enemies”. He said it simply means that comrades are having different views on who they preferred for the positions of leadership in the province.
He said the province will unite once the much-awaited elective congress is convened.
Ngomane added that as the Ngci camp they would like to see the province united and go to the national conference as a united force speaking with one voice.
“We would like to see comrade DD becoming the President and I’m sure nobody in this province who will not pride himself or herself to have one of their own becoming a President,” Ngomane said during a Ngci campaign in Lesley, Govan Mbeki.
(edited by MLM)
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