Another ANC Gauteng leader has found himself in Mbalula’s cross hairs

Lebogang Maile, the ANC Gauteng strongman, has become the latest provincial leader to lock horns with party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, who has threatened to bring the weight of his office down on him over his recent tweets. 

This comes months after Mbalula summoned ANC Gauteng chair Panyaza Lesufi to Luthuli House over what he said were anti-government of national unity public comments.

Soon after Maile posted late night tweets about the ANC, Mbalula has lashed out at him, saying he was exhibiting ill-discipline. 

Maile, without mentioning a specific person, tweeted that he would never support anyone who goes out of their way to destroy the ANC. 

“This is my heritage, that’s the only anything I know. The ANC is not a cult of personality. We are not cowards. We will fight with everything we have,” he said in one tweet. 

In another tweet, considered to be aimed at the push to disband the party's Gauteng executive committee, Maile said: “The ANC I joined and love is not like a pig,  it does not devour its own children”. 

It has been rumoured that Mbalula and others are pushing for the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal leadership to be disbanded after their poor showing at the May 29 polls. 

Maile’s tweets are seen as a salvo aimed at Mbalula. 

Mbalula, speaking ahead of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting to finalise the January 8 statement that will be delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday, fired his own salvo at Maile. 

Without mentioning him by name, Mbalula said tweets brought the ANC into disrepute and threatened charges for ill-discipline. 

“I’ve seen other people on Twitter every day when they have taken something [to drink at] 2am, leaders of the ANC, tweeting things that bring the ANC into disrepute. They too will be attended to very soon,” said Mbalula. 

“There’s nothing wrong with raising views and raising ideas but to attack the organisation and cast aspersions on the leadership of the ANC will not be tolerated. They will be brought to book, they will be brought to discipline. We will discipline them. ”

Mbalula said there were provincial leaders who turned a blind eye to ill-discipline by their comrades. 

“We are aware some provinces have decided to ignore ill-discipline, and it falls on national leadership to basically bring people who bring the organisation into disrepute to order,” he said. 

Though the only item on the agenda of the NEC meeting in Cape Town on Monday night was to finalise the January 8 statement, Mbalula did not shut down the possibility of NEC members raising unrelated issues. 

The statement the NEC was finalising will be delivered by Ramaphosa at the 22,000-capacity Mandela Park stadium in Khayelitsha. 

The party’s youth league leader Collen Malatji said he was expecting Ramaphosa to focus on youth unemployment and the looming water crisis in the country. 

“The expectation of the youth league is mainly on the issue of youth unemployment. We have told the president about the issue of export quotas and the reindustrialisation of the economy so it creates enough jobs for the youth and everyone else,” said Malatji. 

“On top of the agenda we expect the president to speak about the issue of water. Our communities are facing a big issue of water becoming a new disaster, like the energy crisis we had before. The issue of crime is a big thing and we expect the president to speak about solutions.”

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