The group said they are not going to support someone who fails his own sub-region.
An important lobby group in the Govan Mbeki sub-region aligned to Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane has announced that they will no longer support Mkhondo mayor Vusi ‘Sgemegeme’ Motha in his bid to be elected Gert Sibande ANC regional chairman.
The group announced they will instead lobby branches to support Chief Albert Luthuli municipal speaker Walter Mngomezulu to take over the job.
Gert Sibande will have an elective conference once the much-awaited provincial conference is held in May 2021.
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Before the ANC suspended all gatherings early last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gert Sibande was divided into two main factions – one led by regional chairman Muzi Chirwa and another by Sgemegeme.
But since Tsipane left the Ngci camp to form her own camp, the RMT21, Sgemegeme has been losing key leaders in Gert Sibande who were important for his campaign to take regional power to Tsipane’s camp.
Ngci is a lobby group that was pushing for Tsipane to be the first woman chairperson of the ANC in Mpumalanga just before the lockdown was imposed last year March.
It is currently not clear whether key allies in the Gert Sibande region such as Lekwa mayor Linda Dhlamini, safety & security MEC Vusi Shongwe, sports & culture MEC Busi Shiba and PEC member Sibusiso ‘The Great’ Sgudla still support him.
The Govan Mbeki lobby group previously supported Sgemegeme and Chrissiesmeer ANC leader Khulani Nhlabathi as regional secretary.
At a meeting held in Secunda township’s Kgotso community hall Monday this week 5 April 2021, the ANCYL’s Gracious Shabangu announced they will no longer support Sgemegeme.
Shabangu said they refuse to support someone who is failing to take care of young people in his own sub-region of Mkhondo where he serves as a mayor.
“Nobody has paid us,” said Shabangu. “We will no longer support Sgemegeme and his cabal,” he said.
Shabangu said they will neither support acting provincial chairman Mandla Ndlovu and “we will disrupt branch meetings that seek to manipulate processes”.
“Sgemegeme is coming from Mkhondo and young people in Mkhondo are suffering under his leadership. So we are not going to support people who don’t make a difference in the lives of people.
“Comrade Walter is disciplined and we cannot run away from that fact, therefore he must be given the opportunity to lead,” Shabangu said while addressing at Kgotso hall.
He said they will also support Govan Mbeki’s Thokozani Mdau to be the regional secretary instead of acting secretary Lindi Masina.
“We are not going to support old people. Whoever tells us about old people being right there is something wrong with that person,” he said.
He said they want Mdau as secretary, former ANCYL leader Trevor Nkosi as deputy secretary, REC member Muzi Manyathi as deputy chair and Mngomezulu as the chair.
Shabangu said in the past few months he led a “delegation” that met with Chirwa and then another that met with the ANCYL in Gert Sibande to highlight issues of “factionalism” and purging of comrades which has come to define the region under Chirwa’s leadership.
“That ANCYL is dead,” he said, referring to the regional league led by Thulasizwe Thomo. “They can’t even address themselves, how can they address young people and their issues. They can’t. You could see even the way they were elected in Badplaas, they were prepared to murder people in order to install themselves as leaders of young people and that is the reason we left that conference,” he said.
“Then comrade Refilwe will be the chairperson of this province and the other ones we don’t know about them,” said Shabangu to ruptious giggles, adding that moving forward they will seek to play an active role in renewing the ANC in Govan Mbeki and make sure the “thugs” in the municipality stop stealing people’s money meant for service delivery.
“This municipality has no money and we don’t know where it went because people are poor and there is no services delivered to them. So comrades those are the issues we must fix in this region and sub-region.
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(edited by ZK)
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