He implied those supporting Ronald Lamola do not really have the numbers.
ANC provincial treasurer Mandla Msibi has emerged from the step-aside political wilderness to declare support for deputy president David Mabuza.
Mpumalanga is currently divided between supporters of Mabuza and justice minister Ronald Lamola.
Msibi addressed scores outside the Mpumalanga High Court after his double murder charges were provisionally withdrawn.
He said as Mpumalanga they will continue supporting Mabuza the same way they did towards Nasrec in 2017.
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Msibi implied that those who are supporting Lamola in the province do not really have the numbers to make an impact at the party’s 55th national congress in December 2022.
He shot down Lamola’s “generational mix” campaign and said generational mix doesn’t happen like that, because first of all Lamola is a “newcomer”.
“When you tell us about generational mix don’t tell us about age, we speak about generations of detachment,” he said to rapturous applause, adding that the comrades who led with Fikile Mbalula in the youth league are actually supposed to be the next generation in line of succession, not “newcomers”.
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Lamola eyes the post of ANC deputy president. Also acting secretary-general Paul Mashatile has been endorsed by Limpopo to contest the same seat.
Msibi said the post of deputy president belongs to Mpumalanga once more and it will still be for Mabuza as Mabuza has been performing well in the first term.
“If we are to change or do anything, we must call DD Mabuza and say you have failed us politically on this and that and therefore we are not supporting you.
“Any other thing opposing that is a fallacy and we are not going to agree with it,” Msibi said.
He told his supporters that the people who “orchestrated” his fall in politics while he was on a step-aside were big politicians in the province and he will come to them one-by-one as he is now freed from his criminal case.
Msibi is said to have attended his first PEC meeting this week after he was elected in absentia to become provincial treasurer at the party’s Witbank Dam conference in April this year.
Party spokeswoman Ngelosi Ndlovu said Msibi returned to his job because when you are charged, “you have to step aside automatically”.
“So when the charges are withdrawn, you automatically return to your position,” she said.
Deputy provincial secretary Lindiwe Ntshalintshali, Msibi’s closest ally, said they have always been saying that the step-aside rule was being used to purge comrades for factional reasons.
Msibi said: “I’ve been made to suffer. I am not angry (at) anyone, but the truth must come out. I promised that at the right time I’ll share information with national ANC officials.”
(edited by MLM)
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