ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula has vowed that action will be taken against a North West council whip who shared pictures of himself brandishing an AK-47.
Bojanala whip Ditebogo Moeketsane found himself at the centre of a storm after posting a WhatsApp status earlier this week of himself carrying the assault rifle, captioning it: “victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek victory.”
The picture was doing rounds on many ANC North West WhatsApp groups. Many questioned Moeketsane's behaviour and the message it sent to society and those who worked with him.
On Thursday, Mbalula reacted with shock when shown Moeketsane's picture, saying he was unaware of it and was seeing it for the first time.
“People do these things ... they don't think about the image of the ANC,” Mbalula told TimesLIVE Premium.
Mbalula said Moeketsane's behaviour warranted action. “Obviously, we will act on this gun-toting behaviour,” Mbalula said.
Moeketsane told TimesLIVE Premium that the picture and what it symbolises was blown out of proportion, with some even suggesting that he was intimidating municipal managers for a lucrative tender or that he had a relationship with gangsters.
“These claims are completely untrue and baseless. To set the record straight, I personally booked a shooting range for recreational purposes, and at no point have I ever carried a firearm in public,” he said.
Moeketsane said the picture was taken by a photographer who collects them for the shooting range for “business profiling purposes”.
“The image being circulated was taken from my WhatsApp status, which has been maliciously misinterpreted and manipulated for nefarious purposes,” Moeketsane said.
He accused those who have raised concerns about the picture of spreading “unfounded propaganda” against him.
“This unfounded propaganda is being spread by individuals who thrive on chaos and the manufacturing of lies to garner the attention of senior leaders,” he said.
Asked if he would post such a picture again, Moeketsane said he saw nothing wrong with it as he was passionate about firearms.
“It's just a shooting range, and if I have to go to a shooting range for another gun, I would do that,” he said.
Moeketsane also sent TimesLIVE Premium a certificate from a Pretoria firearm training company to prove that he went for firearm handling and control training two weeks ago.
Moeketsane said the “falsehoods” will not deter him from focusing on his work as a public servant.
“I still commit to work together with ANC leadership to reject such falsehoods and prevent the spread of misleading information that seeks to tarnish ANC reputations for personal gains,” he said.
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