PAC rejects Youth Congress statement calling Madiba a 'sellout'

The PAC has distanced itself from a statement by Pan Africanist Youth Congress spokesman Sello Tladi calling former president Nelson Mandela a "sellout".

"The PAC would like to distance itself from the reckless statement issued on the Youth Day by some cranks parading themselves as youth leaders of the PAC," general secretary Narius Moloto said on Tuesday.

"In their statement, they callously wished that the former president should die. As the PAC, we are sad that such a reckless statement was issued in the first place, and that the persons who issued such foolish and reckless statement attached the name of the PAC to [the] statement."

Moloto said the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania did not know the source of the statement and said Tladi was not part of the youth leadership.

On Monday, the Citizen reported that Tladi said Mandela was a sell-out and greedy.

"He betrayed us by rubber-stamping the 1913 Land Act through the adoption of [the] Freedom Charter," Tladi was quoted as saying.

"The problem with the Freedom Charter is that it made African people to be landless."

Tladi was reportedly addressing PAC, Azanian People's Organisation, and Socialist Party of Azania supporters at the Regina Mundi church in Soweto at a Youth Day event on Sunday.

Moloto said the PAC regretted that such a statement was made on the organisation's behalf.

"We hold the former president in high esteem as a struggle icon who helped this country gain its freedom from the shackles of oppression and apartheid rule," he said.

"We also take this opportunity to wish him well as he recovers from his illness."

Mandela was admitted to a Pretoria hospital on June 8 with a recurring lung infection.