WATCH | Israel ambassador must go and ANC disunity must stop: Mbalula

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says Israel's ambassador to South Africa, Eliav Belotsercovsky, should be withdrawn.

“The government will take steps that it has to [to do that]. As a party, we are for showing our support for Palestine,” he said.

Mbalula spoke outside the Sandton police station after he opened a case of crimen injuria and defeating the ends of justice against former chair of Productivity SA and CEO of Thuja Capital Mthunzi Mdwaba.

Speaking to journalists outside the precinct, Mbalula answered questions on Israel.

“We have said that our government must do everything in its power to ensure that we make a statement, including the possibility of demarching the ambassador of Israel and to also withdraw our diplomats from Israel. We are very happy about that,” he said.

“This Saturday in Cape Town, we will join thousands of South Africans in solidarity with the Palestinians. We stand for Palestine because Palestinians live in a nation that is oppressed.”

Mbalula also addressed the recent apparent disunity within the ANC.

The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) on Monday slammed KZN’s provincial chairperson Siboniso Duma, who is also MEC for economic development in the province, claiming he had “overshadowed” premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube during the hosting of the Springbok Rugby World Cup trophy tour in Durban at the weekend.

“I stand here as the African National Congress to call order, first and foremost. If an ANC structure, not an NGO, complains about its own chairperson in the province in public, what message are you sending? You are telling the public that you are not a party to be respected. You’ve got no channels of communication. There is disorder, there is anarchy and anarchy is the highest state of disorder,” he said.

“That act gives an impression that the ANC is disorganised. In the last NEC we resolved that public spats must stop, and KZN is no exception. We are going to engage with the comrades of KZN from the secretary to the women’s league and everybody and call order.

“There must be order in the organisation. We must be single-minded in what we want to achieve.”

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