The league is faced with two important congresses – a provincial and a national one – and jostling for positions has begun.
The factional fights of the ANCYL ahead of two important congresses are the reason ANC deputy president DD Mabuza snubbed the ANCYL’s 74th birthday celebration, this paper has learnt.
Some branches across the Mpumalanga province have started convening BGMs to nominate favoured candidates ahead of a provincial elective conference, a conference important going to the national one where the claws are out between contestants NEC member Ndumiso Mokako and national treasurer Reggie Nkabinde.
Senior ANC sources in the Mpumalanga province said Mabuza was made aware in the 11th hour that the 74th birthday celebration at the Sydney Choma community hall in Middelburg was going to be more of a launch of Nkabinde’s campaign than a birthday celebration.
“He was briefed on Saturday not to come because that was actually gonna be the launch of Reggie’s campaign. Mabuza doesn’t really want to publicly associate with a slate in the ANCYL though Pholoso Mbatsane is his favoured candidate for the position of national secretary,” the source said.
“But Mabuza doesn’t want to do that overtly, so that is why you saw [deputy president Desmond] Moela and [ANC provincial spokeswoman] Sasekani Manzini. Those are one of people who do Mabuza’s work on the ground,” said the source.
Reason national leader Collen ‘Oros’ Maine also snubbed the event was because Maine wants Mokako, who also snubbed the event, to be the President and “wouldn’t want to be overridden by the Nkangala ANCYL that actually organised the event,” the source said.
The event was then addressed by outgoing deputy president Desmond Moela, who called for unity in the league and said if the leaguers didn’t unite now they would just have to “forget” about liberating the youth of this country.
Mpumalanga provincial secretary Pholoso Mbatsane (L) and national treasurer Reggie Nkabinde (R).
Moela wants Nkabinde to be the President on a slate that wants provincial secretary Pholoso Mbatsane as the secretary general.
The Nkabinde camp also wants Nkangala secretary Thabang Mathebula to be Mpumalanga ANCYL chairman when a provincial congress is held soon.
But this is setting them against the Mokako camp which wants Gert Sibande’s Trevor Nkosi to become the chair. Nkosi is current provincial deputy chair.
The source say the reason Mokako, Maine and Mabuza didn’t come “is the issue of association”.
The Mokako campaign is currently experiencing hardships after Sabelo was discovered to be having secret meetings with former President Jacob Zuma allegedly plotting to oust current leader Cyril Ramaphosa.
The Sunday event was chaired by Nkangala regional leader Bobo Mtshweni and saw Nkabinde flanked by Mathebula, Moela, Mbatsane, provincial leader Tim Mashele, Manzini, Nkangala ANC chair Speedy Mashilo and secretary Leah Khoza.
Mpumalanga ANCYL leader Tim Mashele. 013NEWS/ZK.
“Collen, there was no way he was gonna come. It’s the issue of association my brother like I’m telling you,” said the source.
Moela and Manzini are accused by a disgruntled faction aligned to Mokako in the Bohlabela region of having delivered a league regional leadership through unfairness and alleged use of “bogus delegates”.
Asked why he did not attend Sunday’s celebration, Mokako said he could not make it to the event because he “did not have money”.
“Remember you need petrol to get to a place,” he said while laughing over the phone.
Provincial acting chairman Mandla Ndlovu, who also snubbed the event, said the reason he did not come despite being put on the program was because he had “flu”.
“I’m sick you won’t believe. I have flu,” he said over the phone.
“I don’t know that I was on the program,” said Ndlovu.
Manzini asked that all queries be directed to the ANCYL as that was an ANCYL event.
Provincial spokesman Bheki Sithole said the event was not a launch of Nkabinde’s campaign but a birthday celebration but can’t say those who say so are lying.
“Look it’s no secret that the ANCYL is due for a congress and during such time it happens that comrades lobby each other, so I won’t say whether those who say that was a campaign are lying or not but what I know is that it was a celebration,” Sithole said.
“All I know is that it was a 74th birthday celebration of the ANCYL and was organised nationally,” he said.
Nkabinde himself denied the stage was set for him to launch his campaign.
“You can’t say a celebration of the ANCYL is a launch of a campaign. That is so incorrect,” he said.
He added that an apology was sent by Mabuza to national secretary Njabulo Nzuza because Mabuza “had an emergency”.
National spokesman Mlondolozi Mkhize didn’t answer repeated calls on Sunday night and Monday morning.
Deputy President DD Mabuza has suggested that we are currently not in a technical recession but rather the problem is the SA economy refusing to grow.
He was answering oral questions this week Wednesday in the National Assembly.
He said those who were saying the country was in recession didn’t take “a very comprehensive picture”.
Sats SA a week ago said the economy had entered its first technical recession in nine years and GDP went down by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2018, meaning from April to June.
“As a country‚ we’ve noticed the current decline,” he told MPs on Wednesday afternoon.
“And I don’t probably agree with those who are saying we are in technical recession‚” said Mabuza.
He said as government they have taken a “comprehensive picture” and were taking it quarter by quarter and they were seeing an economy that was refusing to grow‚ not that it had entered recession.
“We’ve not taken the overall statistics over a period. But I’m confident that as government we’re going to reverse this tide and I am sure President Cyril Ramaphosa will make a few announcements on how governments wants to intervene in this current situation because it’s our responsibility to respond to this situation,” the deputy president said.
He also rejected suggestions from Cope and DA MPs that we were like this because of the issue surrounding land expropriation without compensation.
“I want to dismiss the fact that land expropriation accounts for this situation,” he said.
“Or that it is scaring investors. I don’t agree,” Mabuza said.
“And we’ve said again and again that land expropriation is going to happen in a very responsible way.
“We’re not intending to disrupt our agricultural production… I don’t think we should be pessimists and run away from the facts we should address.”
Mabuza is being accused of using her to continue his rule in the province.
Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtsweni is allegedly the side-chick of ANC deputy national leader David ‘DD’ Mabuza.
This was said by a bishop who was addressing ANC members during David Dube’s campaign to become Mpumalanga ANC chair in the Secunda township of eMbalenhle a past weekend, Mpumalanga News has reported.
Bishop Max Maumela of the Faith Harvest Bible wants Dube to fill the Mpumalanga ANC position left by Mabuza when he got elected the deputy president on 18 December 2018 and was given the opportunity to speak at the Dube event.
The newspaper said the bishop said Mtsweni is Mabuza’s lover and that was the reason he got the position – used as a proxy for him to continue ruling Mpumalanga from Gauteng.
David Dube Who wants to be ANC Mpumalanga chairman.
The bishop further said that Mabuza is a murderer, according to the reports.
But the Mpumalanga ANC finds these comments belittling women, defaming Mabuza and is now fighting them back.
A case of defamation against the bishop has now been opened.
“Having a female Premier was supposed to be celebrated,”
ANCWL provincial secretary Lydia Moroane said during a press briefing held at party provincial headquarters in Mbombela on Monday this week (6 Aug), “and especially by bishops”.
“He accused us of using our bodies to get positions. He is undermining us,” Moroane said during the briefing.
Mtsweni, who was largely unknown and who is not an ANC regional or provincial executive committee member, was hand-picked by Mabuza in February 2018 to become the acting Premier when President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Mabuza the deputy president, following the forced resignation of Jacob Zuma as President on the night of 14 February.
She was the MEC for traditional affairs in the province – a position she got in 2014 when Mabuza returned to power as the Premier for a second-term. In March 2018, Mtsweni was elected the Premier having acted for almost a month.
“The role of the bishop is to pray, to ensure that the ANC can continue to lead, revolutionise our people and to better the party,” said Moroane of Maumela.
“And I do not know if he forgets his role,” the provincial women’s league leader said.
The rich Mpumalanga man vehemently denies funding Zanu-PF’s election, worse buying them trucks and now threatens to take legal action against those who say so.
There is a company called ‘MBE Promotions’ that was involved in the Zanu-PF’s election campaign.
This is not the first time this company is involved in the whole political campaigning process – it first got involved in 2016 when IT billionaire Robert Gumede bought 12 bakkies for the Mpumalanga ANC.
But long before the 2016 Local Government Elections Mashile’s company had already branded some of the ANC’s campaign vehicles as well being awarded tenders for the supply of customised trucks to provincial government departments.
The company is owned by ANC deputy president DD Mabuza’s closest ally, Nathaniel Mashile, who leads the ANC in the eHlanzeni region of Mpumalanga as deputy secretary and whose company’s stake in the whole Zimbabwe political campaigning process has been to brand and fit the bakkies and stage trucks with public announcement systems.
Mabuza is Gumede’s long time friend and it’s likely that the involvement of Mashile, who has good relations with Gumede through Mabuza was there because Gumede was sponsoring the Zanu-PF election campaign.
Mashile’s company started branding the vehicles in March 2018 – less than two months after Gumede met with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, publicly pledging to invest R15 billion into the Zimbabwean economy.
Nathaniel Mashile.
Robert Gumede (L) who allegedly bought the Zanu-PF vehicles seen here with President Emmerson Mnangagwa (C) and MBE Promotions owner Nathaniel Mashile (R) who branded and fitted them with PA systems.
In the January 2018 meeting, which followed a month after the ousting of dictator Robert Mugabe who had ruled that country for close to 40 years, Gumede told Mnangagwa “to not keep quiet whenever he needs anything”, sources close to MBE Promotions told 013NEWS.
Once Mashile was done branding the vehicles in Zanu-PF colours, they were then handed over to Mnangagwa and a video showing both Gumede and the Zim leader dancing to a song by Zimbabwean popular singer Jah Prayzah being played from a brand new truck has surfaced.
In the video, Mashile is seen coming from the donated truck’s music system on its stage – apparently showing the two men that MBE Promotions had successfully done the job.
Gumede has vehemently denied ever funding Zanu-PF ahead of 30 July 2018’s general elections that saw Mnangagwa winning with 50.8% against MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa’s 44.3%.
Gumede said reports by the Sunday Times over the weekend that he donated millions to Mnangagwa’s ruling party which were then used to buy about 100 bakkies and two stage trucks were “fake news” and threatened he would take legal actions to defend his image because the article portrays him as a “state capturer” and creates political divisions in Zimbabwe.
“I deny the allegations and I intend taking legal action to defend my reputation and to ultimately expose personal agendas and ulterior motives,” he said.
Gumede said being the “international businessman” he is, he had done business in Zimbabwe for more than 10 years “and I have not donated any money towards any election campaigns,” adding there would have been records of it because “any funds leaving South Africa require Reserve Bank clearance”.
“There is nothing untoward nor suspicious about my engagements with President Mnangagwa given that I have committed to investing in the country. I love Zimbabwe for the role it played in bringing democracy to South Africa during the struggle led by the ANC,” said Gumede.
The commission was investigating two statements the spin doctor released while he was the spokesperson of then Premier David ‘DD’ Mabuza.
The Public Service Commission has found that Mpumalanga government spin doctor Zibonele Mncwango breached professional ethics when he used government resources to defend the personal and ANC matters of then Premier DD Mabuza.
Action has now been recommended against Mncwango for “abuse of resources”.
On 5 May 2017, Mncwango released a media statement and which was later published on the Mpumalanga government website replying to a high court judgement in which a judge dismissed Mabuza’s defamation case against ANC former treasurer Mathews Phosa.
Mabuza had taken Phosa to the Tshwane high court following allegations Phosa made in 2015 that Mabuza was a spy during apartheid.
Phosa said he had found a document that alleged Mabuza was operating under the code name PN485 and served to inform apartheid officials about the movements of senior leaders like ex-leader Jacob Zuma and basic education minister Angie Motshega from 1985 to 1993.
Mabuza refuted this, saying it was a political campaign aimed at toppling him as a leader of the ANC in the Mpumalanga province and Premier.
He alleged Phosa was one of the authors of the document in his drive to take him out of power and then approached the court, suing Phosa R10 million for defamation of character.
But the Tshwane high court dismissed the case, saying Mabuza failed to show how Phosa invented the document.
“The so-called spy dossier has no owner or author and remains just a smear campaign document produced by faceless authors for their smear campaign agendas,” Mncwango said at the time.
The DA went to the Public Service Commission and laid a complaint against Mncwango, charging the matter between Phosa and Mabuza had nothing to do with government.
“The heading of the judgement by the Gauteng High Court in respect of the matter upon which Mr Mncwango issued an official statement clearly alludes to Mr David Dadebe Mabuza in his personal capacity and not as Premier of Mpumalanga,” the commission said this week in its findings.
“There is therefore little room for doubt that the action by Mr Mncwango is not only wrongful but lacks the necessary professional ethics befitting of [a] public servant,” the commission charged, recommending that the director-general of the Mpumalanga government, Mathews Mohlasedi, takes actions against Mncwango and prevent further abuse of state resources from happening again in the future.
The SACP in the Gert Sibande region of Mpumalanga has been robbed of two district executive committee members following the death of parliamentarian Nokhaya Mnisi and Nomthandazo Karube.
Nkangala ANCYL secretary Thabang Mathebula has slammed all ‘mushrooming’ groupings in his region, saying they were all claiming to belong to ANCYL branches.
Friends and neighbours of the late Caswell ‘Somahhashi’ Maseko have told 013NEWS of the problems the man had with his wife and how he wanted to leave her.
David Dube Who wants to be ANC Mpumalanga chairman.
