Ace Magashule dividing students for his presidential ambitions, ANC told

The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) wants the ANC to reprimand its secretary-general Ace Magashule over his alleged participation in the student body’s divisions.

In a statement released on Tuesday, a grouping led by Cosas president Thabang Mokoena slammed Magashule for dividing students.

This comes after Cosas held two parallel conferences last month, where they elected parallel structures.

One conference, held in the North West, elected Mokoena as its president. The other, held in Pretoria, elected Itumeleng Ntsube, a young ANC member of the National Council of Provinces from the Free State, who is also an alleged Magashule ally.

In their statement, Mokoena said they took issue with Magashule being listed as the main speaker of a programme held by the group led by Ntsube.

“[Magashule] must stop dividing young people of this country through structures, simply because he wants to settle his interests of becoming president of the ANC in the next national conference,” said Mzwakhe Gwegwe in the statement. "If he indeed wants to lead the ANC, let it not be through killing Progressive Youth Alliance structures."

Gwegwe said their group had even been barred by Magashule from entering the ANC headquarters.

“We are now requesting ANC to thoroughly check the conduct of [Magashule] and reprimand him for using his ANC position wrongly, by entertaining political battles of PYA structures,” said Gwegwe.

He said they had written to all ANC officials requesting that the two groupings meet the ruling party to resolve their problems.

“Magashule is not above the ANC and therefore must be called to order,” he added.

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