Thandi Blessing Shongwe Archives

Money used to erect “bogus Mandela” statue supposed to build school: ANCYL

by 013NEWS Reporter | Oct 25, 2018 | Politics

They say the statue is “a distortion” of the image of the struggle icon and a waste of money.

The ANCYL in the Mpumalanga province says the money that was used to erect the “bogus” Nelson Mandela statue outside the legislature in Mbombela was supposed to be used for something else, like building a school.

The league has now given sports and culture MEC Thandi Shongwe an ultimatum to remove the “bogus Mandela” statue or else they will remove it themselves “forcefully”.

It says the statue is a “distortion” of the image of the former and first black South African President and should be taken down immediately.

The statue, costing taxpayers R8.3 million, was unveiled on the Friday mid-day of 28 September 2018 by Premier Refilwe Mtshweni.

It was the work of the Mpumalanga sports arts and culture department.

The ANCYL says the man represented in the statue is a Mandela “wannabe”.

“We are utter dismayed, fabbergasted [sic] and perplexed by the bogus statue of Nelson Mandela recently erected in front of the provincial legislature,” it said in a statement Wednesday this week.

“The ANCYL call for the immediate removal of that Mandela ‘wanna be’ and we want to put it categorically clear for the department to hear that if this bogus Mandela is not removed by the end of this week we will mobilise patriotic youth to forcefully remove that distortion of the image of our struggle icon,” the statement released by secretary Pholoso Mbatsane on behalf of the provincial executive committee reads.

He said they believe that the R8.3 million used in the procurement of “that ghost whom our government is saying is Mandela” should have been used to build a school.

It was now calling on the department of sports, arts and culture to invest on the establishment of Mpumalanga schools of excellence.

“The province is not doing [good] in producing and nurturing artists,” Mbatsane said, implying that money should have gone to build a school of artists.

The statement is released after the league held its PEC meeting this week.

It has now resolved to support young people to go to Parliament and legislature and was tired of nominating old people “who go to Parliament and sleep”.

“We want to save them the embarrassment of sleeping painfully in Parliamentary benches,” the Mpumalanga league said.

It will also conduct political schooling for its members in the four regional executive committees as “education is the lifeblood of any organisation pursuing a revolutionary struggle and should forever constitute the day to day activities of the ANCYL”.

“It is an objective reality that any revolution that does not reproduce its ideas is bound to fail,” Mbatsane said in the statement.

“All ANCYL structures should standardise political education into their mainstream programmes and constantly ensure that all members have a proper grasp of the politics of the ANC, its revolutionary theory and its ideological perspective alike,” he said.

He said the political induction will deal with the basic understanding of organizational processes and procedure in order to run an effective organization, prepare members and “sharply raise their level of political consciousness”.

They also call on everybody to support 22-year-old Cheryl Zondi who a week ago bravely testified against Pastor Tim Omotoso who she said used to assault her sexually since the age of 14 after she joined the church at the age of 13.

They also called on the Council of Churches to regulate the establishments of church “especially those of foreign nationals”.

“We call on them to act swiftly in addressing the dignity of this situation. We cannot allow such institutions to be compromised by bogus men of clothes both sinister South Africans and foreign nationals,” he said.

Mbatsane added they will have a provincial and national congress as from 07 to 09 December and the national congress will be from 16 to 20 December 2018.

He said BGMs should sit until 15 November 2018, then afterwards they will allow disputes from 16 to 24 November 2018.

(edited by ZK)

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Sedibe: ‘Scopa is useless – the reason we went to police’

by 013NEWS Reporter | Aug 24, 2018 | News

They want her to answer for fraud and corruption that occured while she was in charge.

The EFF says they decided to approach the cops and not the Select Committee of Public Account to lay charges against former legislature speaker Thandi Shongwe because this committee “doesn’t have teeth”.

“Instead it protects and covers up departments and corrupt officials, so to raise the matter with the Scopa is not going to make sense. The cops are better,” spokesman Collen Sedibe said.

“It is tantamount to reporting a crime to the very same criminal and expect the criminal to arrest, charge and sentence themselves,” he said.

Case number 6/8/2018 is registered with the police in Mbombela against Shongwe, legislature secretary Linda Mwale and finance officer Mbuso Mpika.

The EFF case is based on the findings of the Auditor-General concerning a R9,9 million tender and another, worth R19,6 million.

The R9,9 million was for the supply of photocopiers to the Mpumalanga legislature for a period of three years but the Auditor-General found that despite being disqualified during the bidding process for not having tax clearance certificate the officials quietly awarded the Junox 210 CC the tender.

Frugacode CC was awarded the R19,6 million tender for security and data integrity, City Press reported, and the Auditor-General found that this company was not really supposed to get the tender because it used a SAP accreditation that was not registered under its name.

Police spokesman Colonel Mtsholi Bhembe confirmed the case against Shongwe, Mwale and Mpika had in fact been opened and was opened this month. He said they are busy looking at it.

Sedibe said: “The case was opened against Thandi Shongwe because she was an executive authority at the time of the fraud and corruption, meaning she should have acted against the secretary of the legislature who was reporting to her directly. Moreover, the Auditor-General also mentioned her in the investigation report.

“The EFF is very clear in its founding manifesto and on non-negotiable pillar number 7 that we want a corrupt-free government that is open, transparent and accountable to the people without fear or favour,” he said.

The legislature said they will allow the cops to do their work since the matter is not with Scopa.

(edited by MLM)

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Elias Ginindza ‘laid true, formidable foundation’

by 013NEWS Reporter | Apr 25, 2017 | Featured, News

The late Elias Ginindza will be remembered for the foundation he laid.

Mpumalanga legislature speaker Thandi Shongwe has paid tribute to the first speaker of a democratically elected SA government who died at 83 a week ago.

Elias Ginindza was the speaker of the Mpumalanga legislature between 1994 to 1998.

Current speaker Shongwe said Ginindza “laid a true and formidable foundation of the Mpumalanga provincial legislature to what it is today”.

“His role – that of establishing the first Mpumalanga provincial legislature during the transitional period leading to the new democratic dispensation cannot be forgotten in the history of the province and the nation as a whole,” Shongwe said.

“He remained a point of reference and an icon of hope in the province of Mpumalanga even during his retirement, until his time of ultimate rest,” she said.

Ginindza was laid to rest in Barberton the past weekend (22 Apr) following his death last week (18 Apr).

Ginindza was supposed to leave office after the 1999 general elections but a corruption scandal that involved the chowing of R1 million from the state coffers of the Mpumalanga legislature cost Ginindza his job.

A commission appointed by then Premier Mathews Phosa to probe the matter found that the looting occurred under his watchful eye and the ANC then removed Ginindza as speaker.

(edited by ZK)

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